Hidden in the Dark: Prelude
by Taeniaea
Summary: Will knows her sister well, but her sister no longer knows her at all! A letter finally finds its intended recipient and the gears of fate turn. Not even the Guardian of Time can predict the future now. Alternate version of Hidden in the Dark Alpha.
1. Beginnings 0

**Disclaimer: Neither W.I.T.C.H. Nor Sailor Moon nor anything else that might pop up belong to the writer of this story.**

**Prologue: Beginnings, Part 0**

_**Author Note: Alternate Universe Fic (Obviously). Guardians don't have their powers – there's been about a week's worth of time before the actual plot for them begins. Expect a few other differences the writer of this note can't think of at the moment.**_

"Haruka-papa, Michuru-mama, I got a letter in the mail." Hotaru spoke, approaching Michuru, who stood at the kitchen counter, and Haruka who was nearby getting coffee, a letter in her hand.

"Who is it from Hotaru'chan?" Michiru responded while preparing breakfast. Idly, she wondered when Setsuna would show up. The time guardian had been even more reclusive than usual recently.

"Will Vandom. The return address is a town called 'Heatherfield' in the United States... I haven't read it yet. The letter looks personal, her name is signed on." Hotaru replied, pointing out the girl's English signature when it became relevant. In addition, also written by hand, was a note that said, 'If you are not Hotaru Tomoe, please pass this to someone who might know her.'

Haruka and Michiru looked at each-other before Haruka spoke up, "Hand it here..." Haruka took the letter and opened it, before reading aloud.

"Dear Taru, Where are you? Are you alright? I haven't received a letter from you for several weeks now. All of my previous letters ended up back in my mailbox. I've been worried – Mom too. She's been pulling her hair out on mail day because, far as we can tell, you've vanished off the face of the Earth. I'm not even sure if this will reach you... if it does, then you know how much we're worried about you..." Haruka's and Michuru's faces shifted through a variety of emotions. From confusion, to shock, to suspicion, and around again as the letter continued. Hotaru herself was just confused.

"On a more positive note, life in Heatherfield is going well... I've already made some friends. Taranee, Irma, Hay-Lin, Cornelia, and several others. After being introduced to their group I've been managing to get by... I haven't forgotten what happened, but it's not as potent a memory as it was before... I hope you're doing fine too. Don't let those kids get to you."

"...Who is this? How do they know me?" Hotaru asked, thinking aloud.

"They probably just got the wrong address..." Haruka assured her, only for Hotaru to counter it.

"-But it says 'Hotaru Tomoe.' Is my name really that common? The kanji are the same too..."

"Not so uncommon that it's impossible..." Michiru assured her, though the argument didn't seem to be convincing Hotaru very well. "We should probably pass it on, as instructed..."

Hotaru shook her head, "No... I want to respond to it."

"But-" Haruka started, only to be cut off by Hotaru.

"The person who wrote this letter deserves a response."

Haruka knuckled her forehead and sighed while Michiru averted her eyes before speaking. "Alright, you can respond... But we're still passing the letter on."

Hotaru nodded, before fetching a pencil and paper and beginning to write...

Meanwhile, Setsuna watched from the Time Gates, trying to figure out where the time-line changed. "Well... it shouldn't effect things too much... At least, not in a bad way..."


	2. Beginnings 1

_**Disclaimer: Neither W.I.T.C.H. Nor Sailor Moon nor anything else that might pop up belong to the writer of this story.**_

_**Chapter I: Beginnings, Part 1**_

"_Dear Will, Hello... my name is Hotaru Tomoe. I live in Tokyo, Japan – the Minato Ward. I received a letter addressed to me, or someone with my name, at least. I do not believe I am the actual recipient of the letter I received, though, because I don't remember ever meeting anyone with your name. I have no problems at school, and though I don't have very many friends, at least I'm not picked on as your letter implied. My condolences to you for losing contact with your friend... I'll pass the letter on and ask Setsuna-mama if she can find out anything... she knows a lot of people and might be able to help... I hope you find your friend, Will. - Tomoe Hotaru."_

Will's hand shook as she held the letter. '_It's her handwriting... same city, country, and ward... she even wrote her name backwards, even though she was writing in English! This has to be her, but... she doesn't remember?'_

"Mom!" Will shouted as she rushed into the house, letter in hand.

"What is it?" Her mother, Susan inquired, a bit worried at Will's attitude.

"I got a letter from Hotaru! But..." Will handed the letter to her mother, stepping back and allowing her mother to read it. Susan's face paled and froze up. She was extremely still.

"Mom?" Will asked, waving her hand in front of her face, only for her mother to fall over. Will only just managed to catch her.

Irma walked in without knocking to find Will placing Susan on a couch. "Woah, what happened to your mom, Will? You don't look so good either... what is that, a death-letter?" It was a half-joke.

"No... it's from my little sister..." Will wasn't in the mood for Irma's usual banter.

"Your sister? Shouldn't that be a good thing?"

Will shook her head, "Kind of... thing is... she wrote it as if we were strangers. She stopped responding to my letters a few weeks ago – we keep in touch via letter – and I kept trying to contact her. When I finally do manage to get a letter through..."

"Well, maybe it's not your sister?" Her friend put forth, only to be shot down.

"Same name, same place of residence, same handwriting... she even has the same writing _style_. Just..."

"Different?" Irma inserted as she picked up the letter and began to read.

"...She doesn't remember anything... Now I know why I could contact her." Will replied.

"Your sister is Japanese?"

"...Yeah. Her father got kind of absorbed in his research and the two split up. I've kept tabs with Taru though..."

_**At the Same Time in Tokyo, Japan (If time-zones didn't exist)**_

Hotaru was in a park playing hide and seek with her best friend, Chibiusa. At the moment, Chibiusa was it, and thus Hotaru was hiding behind a rather large tree. Meanwhile, off to the side, Michiru and Haruka were conferring with Setsuna.

"Have you found anything out about the letter Hotaru got in the mail?" Haruka inquired while Michiru watched the children from afar.

"No... The Soldier of Silence is static at best when viewed through the Time Gate, and simply impossible to locate at worst. Whoever this Will person is... they're just as bad. I can't find anything out other than Heatherfield's location. It's in the northeastern United States."

Haruka knuckled her right temple, "Things are never easy for us, are they?"

Rather than respond to the rhetorical question, Setsuna continued, "The fact that I can't view 'Will' through the Gate means something's up with her, though. I can't say for sure if she will cause us any trouble or not... but it'd be best to try and keep tabs on her somehow."

Off to the side, Hotaru came running up with Chibiusa, "Setsuna-mama, are you talking about Will?"

"...Nothing serious, just wondering at the coincidence that her letter found you." Setsuna lied, her face as straight and calm as usual.

"Ah! I was meaning to ask... Could you try and find the Hotaru she's looking for? It must be awful not being able to talk with such a close friend..."

"I'll see what I can do..." Setsuna replied non-commitively.

Chibiusa looked between the elder women and Hotaru and immediately knew something was up. "Come on Taru, tag, you're it!"

"Will addressed her letter with 'Taru' too..." Hotaru mused aloud.

"Hotaru-chan, you don't remember everything, right? Maybe Will's actually someone you knew?" Chibiusa spoke up, having overheard Hotaru's musings.

"I don't know... maybe..." Hotaru replied, sounding uncertain.

"What if we go to your old house? Maybe there's something there to connect you to her." Chibiusa ,said.

"I guess it's worth a shot..."

"Alright!" Chibiusa spoke, contrasting Hotaru's passive mood. "Hotaru-chan and I are going to my house, alright?"

The elders nodded, "She staying over?" Haruka called out.

"Maybe." Chibusa replied as the two set off out of the park.

_**Heatherfield**_

"Well, come on. We're going to be late... no use moping around all day, right? We'll get together with everyone else and pool our thoughts." Irma spoke, trying to cheer Will up.

"Yeah... You're right." Will fetched her pack, looking to her mom before leaving.

_**Tokyo, near the Tomoe Mansion**_

After leaving the outer's sight, they broke out into a full run. They reached Hotaru's old house quickly. Now that Hotaru's original father had died, it had been passed on to her, but currently was being 'watched over' by Setsuna until the day Hotaru reaches adulthood. Not that Setsuna did anything other than ensure that it wasn't vandalized or similar – the house was in the same condition that it was left in. Pushing open the front gate, the two walked up to the door. With the use of Hotaru's key, it swung open, an eery creaking noise heralding their entrance.

The foyer beyond was dark and dusty... a few pairs of shoes sat next to the door along with slippers, and a coat hung on a coat-rack. Proceeding through the dark, dimly lit halls resulted in similar findings. Things had just been left where they were – the only evidence someone once lived here. Hotaru's room was neatly made and stripped bare of the lamps that once adorned her walls. A deck of tarot cards lay on the end-table and the dresser was empty of clothes.

Most of the nick-nacks and accessories one would expect to find in a young girl's room were suspiciously absent. While Chibiusa looked under the bed, Hotaru opened her old desk up, shaking a small amount of dust into the air. Within lay several papers, a few textbooks, and a large book that was thin and unmarked.

"I think I found something Chibiusa-chan." She called out.

"What's this?" Chibusa asked, walking over and sifting through the papers as Hotaru took the book to the bed. "This is homework... homework... ah! A letter!"

"And a photo album." Hotaru finished, flipping through pages depicting her, when she was younger, as well as a girl with red hair and, occasionally, her father or a woman with dark, blue-tinted hair.

"Taru, listen to this!" Chibiusa called out excitedly, garnering the other girl's attention.

"Dear Will, I'm sorry I haven't sent a letter to you... I made a new friend, Chibiusa, the other day... My illness is getting worse, and I haven't been able to go to school or go out much. My caretaker was trying to burn your letter, so I'm lucky I walked in at that moment. Papa's odd, as usual, but still kind. I think he's getting odder though... I'm afraid I'm worrying him. Chibiusa and her friend have been helping a lot. I'll try and check the mail more often... - Tomoe Hotaru." Chibiusa turned to Hotaru, "This is exactly what we were looking for... We should mail it to Will."

"But I already sent a letter that basically said I didn't know her..." Hotaru replied guiltily.

"So we send her another letter saying that we found this." Chibiusa replied in turn.

"I guess... if you think it'd help."

"She's probably freaking out right now wondering why you forgot about her! Of course it'd help!" Hotaru's friend lectured.

_**Heatherfield**_

At school, Will was very obviously distracted. Her head was up and her eyes open, resting on her hand, but she wasn't focusing on anything the teacher said, lost in her own thoughts. As a result, her friends were distracted too, turning toward her and looking worriedly at her expression. The teacher turned and called her out often, but in the end her demeanor didn't change. This state of affairs continued until lunch.

"Alright, what's up with you?" Cornelia spoke up upon them sitting down.

"You know those letters I keep mailing? I got a response..." Will responded.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Taranee interjected, but Will shook her head.

"She doesn't remember me."

"Are you sure it's even the right person?" Cornelia inquired.

"I'd recognize my younger sister's handwriting and manner of speech!" Will snapped, prompting Irma to try and pacify her.

"Come on, calm down now. No need to chew Corny's face off, anyone would ask that question."

Will sighed as she back down, sinking into her seat. "Yeah, I guess you're right... Taru would be upset..."

"Come on Will, cheer up! Things will work out somehow." Hay-Lin cut in.

"Yeah... I guess so."

The rest of the day continued similarly. Will was a bit more attentive after lunch, but still distracted. When she got home, after shaking off her persistent friends, she discovered a letter sticking out of her mailbox. '_Already? But the mail came in earlier, it shouldn't arrive again for a while...'_

Her confusion grew deeper when she removed the letter to find that it was sent by Hotaru. A note written on the front said, 'A friend of mine found this in a deserted mansion.'

She opened it quickly and took it inside, walking as she read. "Dear Will, I'm sorry I haven't sent a letter to you..." And so she read the letter discovered by Hotaru and Chibiusa in the Tomoe Mansion. The writing was old and faded, but it was a letter from Hotaru... apparently from before Hotaru forgot about her. While relieving, the letter still rose more questions than answers. Maybe Hotaru forgot her because of the illness? What friend of hers found the letter? The was when Will noticed something as she folded it back up to place it in the envelope again... there was a message written on the back, written in fresh ink. It wasn't in Hotaru's handwriting.

**Sorry. I can't help her too much without making things worse. Please bear with it.** **- Silent S.**

"What on earth is going on over there?" Will exclaimed in frustration.

"Er... I have bad timing, don't I?" Irma spoke up from behind, prompting Will to jump in surprise.


	3. Beginnings 2

_**Disclaimer: Neither W.I.T.C.H. Nor Sailor Moon nor anything else that might pop up belong to the writer of this story.**_

_**Chapter II: Beginnings, Part 2**_

_**Sorry. I can't help her too much without making things worse. Please bear with it.** **- Silent S.**_

"_What on earth is going on over there?" Will exclaimed in frustration._

"_Er... I have bad timing, don't I?" Irma spoke up from behind, prompting Will to jump in surprise._

_**At the Silver Dragon**_

Hay-Lin's grandmother, Yan Lin, walked about the table setting various beverages down around the girls she was hosting.

"So, your younger sister mailed you the original reply to your correspondence, saying that her friend found it, but she herself doesn't remember you?" Cornelia spoke, summarizing Will's situation, "...I don't buy it. There's something else going on other than some illness. She'd have to remember _something_."

"It's not impossible, just uncommon." Taranee countered.

A loud sound came from a door behind Yan Lin, prompting everyone to turn around in surprise and confusion. "Just a mouse. Go on, I'll take care of it." She assured them, opening the door and searching about.

"What's your Grandma hiding?" Will whispered to Hay-Lin, who shrugged in response.

"No clue." The bubbly girl responded.

"Anyway, Will... Just what was wrong with your sister, anyway?" Cornelia spoke, redirecting the conversation back to its original topic.

"I'm not sure, I don't think she was, either. Her doctors speculated everything from some sort of nerve damage to her body simply shutting down. What's really confusing me is this," Will placed the second letter face-down on the table, revealing the second message. "That's not Hotaru's handwriting – I don't recognize it at all, and why use an alias?"

"Maybe it's her friend?" Taranee proposed.

"Why would her friend use an alias?" Will countered.

Irma cut in. "Not like it's an inconspicuous alias, either. I mean, Silent S., come on?"

"Well... All we have is conjecture right now... Summer break is coming up next week..." Cornelia mused aloud.

"You aren't suggesting what I think you are, are you, Corny?" Irma spoke up.

"Yes, I am. Over Summer Break we should go to Japan. In the mean time, Will should keep trying to find things out via mail."Cornelia said.

"Right... But wouldn't that seem awkward?" Will asked.

"Just send a 'thank you letter." The blond responded.

Will still had another concern. "But... where are we going to get the funds to go to Japan?"

"Will... I'm rich. Taranee's mom is a judge... Heck, scatter-brain here has a pretty well-off family too, don't be fooled by how modest they are." Cornelia answered, pointing out Hay-Lin who was currently carrying a tray of tea into the room in place of her grandmother.

"Okay..." Will started, only to be cut off by Irma.

"Don't worry about it, we'll figure it out!"

**Tomoe Mansion, Tokyo Japan**

Chibiusa wasn't lying when she said that Hotaru might be staying over. Hotaru did, in fact, stay the night at the Tsukino residence... if only so the two best friends could have an excuse to visit the Tomoe Mansion again. Which they did. They were currently in Hotaru's old room, flipping through the scrapbook they had found. It depicted Hotaru and a red-haired girl slightly older than her standing in front of Hotaru's father and a woman with dark blue hair. They were standing around the table in the mansion's kitchen, a small cake resting on it. All four of them were smiling, Hotaru and the red-haired girl at the camera – the woman and Souichi at the girl and Hotaru, respectively. Below it was a note that Hotaru read aloud. "January Sixth, Hotaru's Eighth Birthday. From left to right: Back Row – Susan, Souichi; Front Row – Will, Hotaru."

Behind Hotaru, Chibiusa winced. "So you two probably _do_ know each other."

"It looks like it..." Hotaru flipped to the next page, but it was blank, as well as all the others after it. "That's the last picture in the scrapbook." She closed it, revealing the title, 'Will and Hotaru.' "...I should send her an apology and mail one of these pictures to her."

"Hm..." Chibiusa looked thoughtful, "But... after your last two letters, it would probably seem strange now..."

"I think... she at least deserves one of these mementos. I'll send her the last picture..." Hotaru spoke, reaching into the scrapbook and pulling out the aforementioned picture.

"If you think so..." Chibiusa replied, taking the picture. "Let's start writing..."

**Will's House, Heatherfield, United States**

A week after the friend's meeting in the Silver Dragon, Will opened her door after school to see Irma's face and a car being driven by Yan Lin with Cornelia, Taranee, and Hay-Lin seated in it. "Done packing yet?" She asked, her trade-mark smile on her face.

"Yeah," Will responded, "Just let me check the mail before we go." She hefted her school bag, loaded down with seven outfits of clothing and other necessities. Irma nodded, returning to the car as Will reached into the mailbox to pull out, to her surprise, another letter from Hotaru. Since they had a flight to catch, she opted to hurry over to the car and into the passenger seat (next to Taranee, who was sitting in the middle seat between Will and Yan Lin and looking decidedly uncomfortable). As soon as she was seated and buckled in, she opened the letter and began reading aloud as Yan Lin started driving, tuning into the monologue.

"Dear Will, my friend found this in the same place she found the letter I sent you before... I'm sorry this one took so long, we couldn't afford to send another one first class. - Tomoe Hotaru." Will flipped the paper over to find the picture from the scrapbook Hotaru found taped to the back with another note below it. **"Good luck. - SS"** Will passed it around.

"What I don't get," Irma spoke as they drove, "Is why this Silent S character changed their alias."

"Maybe it really is her friend? It'd make since since it was her friend who found the picture.. and when you take the location of the note into account..." Taranee suggested.

"But why is her friend using an alias?" Cornelia posed.

Surprisingly, Hay-Lin was next to speak. "Maybe she doesn't want us to talk to her when we get there?"

Everyone turned to Hay-Lin in surprise (minus Yan Lin, who had to focus on driving). It was Irma who recovered first, "Wow. That was surprisingly logical of you."

"But it still doesn't explain why she changed the alias." Cornelia spoke, recovering her bearings.

"Maybe she just wanted to mess with us?" Hay-Lin responded.

"...You know... you're probably right." Will spoke, "The odds are we're over-thinking this."

"We're here." Yan Lin announced, "Come on, everybody out. We've got an over-seas vacation to get to!"

The girls piled out, retrieving their bags, or suitcases (in Cornelia's case) and following Yan Lin's beckoning hands into the throng of people.

"You know... can't we go by boat or something?" Taranee asked as they waited in line, "I _really_ don't like heights."

"Relax Taranee! Our luck's not so bad that our plane will be the one out of every eleven million to crash a year." Irma assured.

"Somehow, that doesn't make me feel any better." Taranee responded as they approached the terminal.

Despite Taranee's misgivings, nothing of particular note happened on their trip other than Irma blindfolding Taranee and handing her a pressure ball, which she clutched extremely tightly whenever there was even the slightest amount of turbulence. When they touched down, the pressure ball had been destroyed and Taranee almost kissed the ground as soon as they exited the airport if it weren't for Will and Cornelia holding her back.

"So this is Japan." Cornelia spoke, and Will nodded.

"The Minato Ward of Tokyo, to be precise... Normally, I'd ask Souichi if we could stay with him but... I don't think that's a good idea given the circumstances." Will turned to Yan Lin who was watching them, listening to them converse contentedly with an interested expression on her face. "So... Where are we staying?"

"A friend of mine owns a cheap hotel nearby and agreed to reserve us some rooms." The aging matriarch responded.

"Care to lead us there?" Will asked, only for Yan Lin to smile and point to the edge of the street where an aging Asian man was holding up a sign that read 'W.I.T.C.H.'

"He's already waiting for us." She spoke, though it was a mostly redundant statement. "Come on, I'd like to have some tea." And so she led them over to the man, whose name was Gourou Sanazaki. The inn he ran was called 'A Thousand Dreams.' It was a modest affair built in a pseudo-traditional manner with heavy western influence. The structure stood at about three stories tall and just as wide and long, so it had ample room to spare since, partially due to its location, and partially due to its design, it didn't receive as many customers are its competitors. As a result, Gourou made his living off of patrons who were looking for a cheap place to stay.

The girls would all be staying in a single room while Yan Lin had a room to herself.

"Alright, so... where do we start?" Irma asked once they finished unpacking.

In response, Will pulled a book from its resting place on a nearby shelf, "With the phone-book, of course."

"Oh? You're sister's about thirteen years old... you think she's in the phone book?" Cornelia criticized.

Will didn't look up from her searching as she responded."No... I'm looking for her father, a famous scientist and, last I heard, the headmaster of a popular school."

"Ah..." Cornelia responded, unable to come up with a counter to that.

For a while, they sat in silence, amusing themselves as Will scanned the phone-book with a level of focus unrivaled. "Ah! Here it is... but..."

Everyone turned to her as soon as she spoke, and then immediately noticed her pale expression. "It's listed as a memorial site... the owner is one Tomoe Hotaru, but the caretaker is listed as Meioh Setsuna..."

"Wait... what?" Cornelia asked, "This is the house you grew up in right? Why's it a memorial site?"

"I don't know..." Will responded, turning several pages. "The school's listed as a memorial site too... No caretaker."

"Well... We should probably visit them... We'll probably find out why their memorials." Taranee suggested.

Will's reply was distracted. "Yeah... Let's go to the school first..."

They nodded. "I'll go tell grandma." Hay Lin spoke, leaving the room.

Upon reaching the site of the campus, Will grew paler still, if that was possible. It was nothing but rubble. Rubble, rubble, and more rubble. There wasn't anything left of the actual buildings' frames. There was a plaque on a pedestal set up in front of it as well as a picture of what it used to look like. Shakily, Will walked over to it and started reading, "Mugen Academy. Site of the final battle between the heart-snatchers and the sailor soldiers. Other than the sailor senshi, only two people who were in the building are known to have survived, though it was empty save for them and the belligerents. These two are Tomoe Souichi, former headmaster, and Tomoe Hotaru, his daughter. Recently, Souichi died of a terminal illness. His daughter is currently well and under the care of foster parents..." At several points Will paused until she was about half-way through and Irma took over.

"Well... This probably explains a lot." Cornelia spoke, though no one answered. At this point Will was sitting on her knees, looking over the ruins with her eyes glazed over.

"Come on, let's head back to the inn." Irma spoke, tapping Will's shoulder. In response the most easy-going of the group received little more than a nod.

Will spent the entire taxi ride staring out the window. "Now we know why there wasn't a caretaker." Irma spoke, thought it did little to alleviate the mood. It probably wasn't really intended to, either.

**Hotaru, Haruka, Michiru, and Setsuna's House (to be referred to as the Tenoh / Meioh Residence from now on)**

Hotaru was sitting on her bed flipping through the scrap book she had found... well, about three pages of it, anyway. She had placed a book cover on it to hide the title and said it was a exchange diary she and Chibiusa were making. With some help from Chibiusa she had even fastened a latch and key to it.

Suddenly, a cold shiver ran down Hotaru's spine and she turned in the direction of her father's old academy. '_If the premonition is strong enough for me to feel... what are Michiru-mama and Rei-san feeling right now?'_

**Time Gates**

Something just made a large impact on the time-line, Setsuna could tell, hence her immediate transporting to the Gates from her place drinking a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper. But, as large as an impact as it made, for the life of her Setsuna couldn't find it. All she could figure out was that, whatever it was, the catalyst was centered around the ruins of Mugen Academy.

'_This can't be good.'_ She knuckled her forehead, and sighed, "I need more coffee."


	4. Beginnings 3

_**Disclaimer: Neither W.I.T.C.H. Nor Sailor Moon nor anything else that might pop up belong to the writer of this story.**_

_**Chapter III: Beginnings, Part 3**_

"_All we have is conjecture right now... Summer break is coming up next week..." Cornelia mused aloud._

"_You aren't suggesting what I think you are, are you, Corny?" Irma spoke up._

"_Yes, I am. Over Summer Break we should go to Japan."_

"_Dear Will, my friend found this in the same place she found the letter I sent you before... I'm sorry this one took so long, we couldn't afford to send another one first class. - Tomoe Hotaru." Will flipped the paper over to find the picture from the scrapbook Hotaru found taped to the back with another note below it. **"Good luck. - SS"**_

"_Mugen Academy. Site of the final battle between the heart-snatchers and the sailor soldiers. Other than the sailor senshi, only two people who were in the building are known to have survived, though it was empty save for them and the belligerents. These two are Tomoe Souichi, former headmaster, and Tomoe Hotaru, his daughter. Recently, Souichi died of a terminal illness. His daughter is currently well and under the care of foster parents..."_

_Something just made a large impact on the time-line, Setsuna could tell, hence her immediate transporting to the Gates from her place drinking a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper. But, as large as an impact as it made, for the life of her Setsuna couldn't find it. All she could figure out was that, whatever it was, the catalyst was centered around the ruins of Mugen Academy._

_'This can't be good.' She knuckled her forehead, and sighed, "I need more coffee."_

**Story Start, A Thousand Dreams, WITCH's room.**

The girls sat around the room in awkward silence, waiting for Will to start speaking. Eventually, she did. "Dad's gone." It was a simple statement that conveyed so many emotions at once it was hard to ferret out any individual one. Shortly thereafter she regained her composure. "I'm not going home without some answers."

All round, her friends nodded, "First off, we need to know who these 'sailor soldiers' and 'heart-snatchers' are." Cornelia spoke.

"I'm more worried about how they leveled an entire campus." Irma spoke.

"Since they seem pretty well-known, I'll ask the innkeeper about it." Taranee spoke.

"We haven't visited the mansion yet either... We should split into two groups, minus Taranee who's staying here to talk with the innkeeper about the sailor soldiers. One group will search for information on the heart snatchers, the other will visit the mansion." She turned to Will, "You don't have to go the mansion today but..."

"I'll go." Will cut her off, "There's no point in wasting any time."

Cornelia nodded, "So... draw straws to decide how the groups split up?"

Before anyone could respond, Will spoke up again, "...I'll go the mansion by myself... Well, Yan-Lin probably has to come with me. You're in a group so you can get away without a chaperone."

"Well... if you're sure." Cornelia allowed. With reluctance on both sides, though Will was putting up a front, the two split off, Will down the route she remembered led to the mansion, and the others to a popular area recommended by Gorou.

**Tomoe Mansion, Minato Ward**

Hotaru and Chibiusa were exploring the rest of the mansion, looking for more mementos and clues, when Hotaru noticed something through the window. "Chibiusa!" She called out, continuing as her strawberry-blond friend turned, "Will's standing outside the gates!"

"What?" Chibiusa hurried over and looked. Indeed, standing outside the locked iron gates that marked the entrance into the mansion was a red-haired girl matching the one they had seen in the pictures. Her expression couldn't be made out from this distance, but she seemed to be distracted, thinking heavily on something. "Isn't she supposed to be in the US?"

"According to the first letter she sent me… but there's no telling how old that is. Do you think she'll come in?" Hotaru asked worriedly, unprepared for such a confrontation.

"It's locked and we have the spare key. Unless she has a key or is willing to scale the gate we should be fine waiting in here for her to leave…" Chibiusa assured, only for Will to pull something from her pocket and raise it shakily to the gate. "-No way! She has a key!"

"Given how often she seemed to have visited here… It's not too much of a stretch but… now what do we do?" Hotaru asked.

Chibiusa's response was short and immediate, "We hide and try and sneak out !" With that, she pulled her friend into a nearby room and the pair of them slid underneath some curtained furniture

**Outside the Tomoe Mansion, Minato Ward**

Will was nervous and worried about what she might find in the mansion. It'd been a long time since she'd visited last, and when she visited the school… well, she was glad that the mansion was still here at all, as far as that went, but at the same time she was being overly cautious and indecisive. As she rose the key, hand shaking, to the gate latch, Yan-Lin, who was standing beside her, gave her an encouraging nod.

Nodding to herself in decision, Will unlocked the latch, pushing the gates open with a slow, mournful creak. She crossed the yard, Yan-Lin following behind her, and placed her hand on the front door a few moments before testing the lock to see if she need to use the key on it as well. It was unlocked, and with another breath, Will opened the door.

The interior of the mansion was relatively dusty, but not overly so. It was obvious no one lived here anymore, though. "Tadaima." Will called out, though she wasn't really expecting an answer.

The teen proceeded through the empty house slowly, the aging grandmother following behind her and observing the scenery. All the furniture was all hidden by sheets, the windows all curtained. Will made a bee line for her room, and found it empty. That in itself wasn't really surprising... she had moved away, but she had expected Souichi to keep her things in place. The walls were still painted the same color, though, a solid green to contrast her hair.

Will left her room, going to Hotaru's next. Unlike her own, which may as well have been a spare, Hotaru's room was clearly labeled. Inside, the furniture was uncovered, if it had ever been covered in the first place, and there was no dust. The desk was open, revealing several stacks of homework, some a bit messier than others. The bed was rumpled as well, as if Hotaru has just finished sleeping and forgotten to make it. While thinking back on the other times she had been in the room, playing cards or reading stories with Hotaru, Will made the bed. It was while fixing the sheets that Will noticed a small chest underneath the bed.

The teen slid it out and knelt before it, wiping dust off to reveal a small label that read, 'Will's Stuff.' Opening it up revealed a small music box with a frog emblem on the top, a necklace with a pendent depicting a white wing that looked like it joined with something else, and several letters that she had written to Hotaru, all neatly opened, folded, and placed with care.

"She took such good care of them... How could she forget?" Will whispered.

"You never forget something you choose to." Yan-Lin responded, "It's always an accident. Trying to forget only makes you think of what you're trying to forget. The fact that she took such good care of them means she was trying to remember."

"...So why did she forget?" Will asked.

Yan-Lin's response was vague. "That's up for her to remember. No one else really knows the answer."

Will picked up the music box, and necklacing, pocketing the first and placing the other around her neck. "She's been to this room recently... Maybe next time we'll encounter her. Let's search the rest of the house."

Yan-Lin nodded as the pair left the room, shutting the door behind them after replacing the chest, and starting off down the hallway.

**Disused Room, Tomoe Mansion (Hotaru)**

Hotaru and Chibiusa remained hidden beneath the furniture. In the distance, they could here the tell-tale sound of footfalls striking the oaken floor as Will explored the house. "Chibiusa-chan," Hotaru called out quietly, "What if Will comes in here and finds us?"

The footfalls grew increasingly loud and close in distance as Chibiusa responded. "We'll just have to keep that from happening. If it looks like she'll find you I'll shift her attention away."

"...Thank you, Chibiusa." The footfalls stopped outside the door before it opened and the footsteps entered the room. From her position, Hotaru could see a pair of feet wearing the green pair of extra slippers that had puzzled Hotaru when she was searching through the house a while back. Now she knew who they were for, other than guests. "Geeze." Hotaru heard a vaguely familiar voice say, "Some caretaker. Other than placing sheets over the furniture and curtaining the windows they haven't done anything."

At this, Hotaru had to stifle a small giggle. '_Setsuna-mama never did like doing chores.'_

"Hm?" The voice, which Hotaru assumed belonged to Will, spoke as the feet that Hotaru also assumed belonged to Will shifted position, indicating the girl was turning toward her. "Are there mice in here?" She was bending over... And then a thump indicated that Chibiusa had just made a distraction. Startled, Will turned around, snatching the sheet of the end-table Chibiusa was hiding beneath with a flourish as she did so.

**Disused Room, Tomoe Mansion (Will)**

"Now who are you?" Will asked, staring at the strawberry-blond girl that had just stumbled from beneath the end-table curiously.

The girl rubbed the back of her head as she stood up, "Ah... I'm Chibi-" The girl stammered, "Chibiko. I was dared to come in here by some friends of mine."

"Oh? So when you saw someone coming in you hid?" Will accused, to which the girl simply nodded.

"Yeah, pretty much." She spoke, smiling widely, eyes closed.

Though Will had no reason to suspect the girl... one would expect her to be a bit more ashamed or embarrassed at being in this position. Something wasn't adding up."Hm... So where are those friends of yours at?"

"Ah... they probably ditched and went home when they saw you."

"Those don't sound like very good friends." Will spoke, while simultaneously thinking, '_I may have been distracted, but I don't remember anyone being at the gates of the mansion or anywhere else where they could have seen me and then gotten away.'_

"They have their moments..." The girl spoke.

"Well, I suppose there's no helping it. I'll let you off the hook... Say, has anyone ever told you that your ponytails almost look like rabbit ears?" Will asked, acting on a hunch.

"E-Eh, yeah. All the time." The girl responded, flinching at the mention of her hair's shape.

Will closed in on her, "Is that a friendship locket? I had something similar once..."

The girl jumped, "Y-yeah, it is." She was crossing her arms now.

"So..." Will spoke, "Let's see, it was spelled with what characters again? 'Small' and I think the second one was 'rabbit'... "

"

The girl slumped her shoulders, sighing. "So tell me," Will continued, "Do the words 'Silent' and 'S' mean anything to you when combined, Chibi-chan?"

The girl jumped up in shock, eyes wide. "Y-you, w-wha... h-how?"

"So you _do_ know!" Will said, smiling and placing her fist into her palm. "They were written on the back of the last two letters I got from Hotaru. Are you Silent S, or someone you know, Chibiusa-san?"

The girl's face went through a _wide_ variety of emotions. Eventually she settled on a mixture between fear and indignation. "N-no! No way! Well... I kind of know her but... Just no!"

Will took a few step backs, "You know, that's a pretty weak argument you're making there."

A thump sounded out from behind her and Will turned to it, finding a girl with some familiar hair stumbling out from beneath the end table opposite the one Chibiusa had been hiding in. "Hotaru?" "Hotaru!" Two voices sounded at once, one surprised, and uncertain, the other surprised and annoyed.

"I-ite... Sorry, Chibiusa." She looked up revealing an extremely familiar pair of purple eyes.


	5. Beginnings 4

_**Disclaimer: Neither W.I.T.C.H. Nor Sailor Moon nor anything else that might pop up belong to the writer of this story.**_

_**Chapter IV: Beginnings, Part 4**_

_A thump sounded out from behind her and Will turned to it, finding a girl with some familiar hair stumbling out from beneath the end table opposite the one Chibiusa had been hiding in. "Hotaru?" "Hotaru!" Two voices sounded at once, one surprised, and uncertain, the other surprised and annoyed._

"_I-ite... Sorry, Chibiusa." The girl looked up revealing an extremely familiar pair of purple eyes._

**Disused Room, Tomoe Mansion (Hotaru)**

"Please don't be too hard on Chibiusa-chan... I'm the one who was afraid of meeting you." Hotaru spoke, standing up.

"You... Yeah, sorry." Will replied, stepping back. "I'll be going now..." Will wasn't sure what possessed her to leave. Hotaru's eyes were missing something. A sort of light that had always been there. They weren't dead by any means, just... incomplete.

At the door, she paused, "You should search your room more thoroughly, Taru."

And then she left, quickly, before either Hotaru or Chibiusa could make a sound, leaving the two to stare at each other in confusion. "What did she mean by that?" Hotaru asked.

"It means..." Chibiusa spoke, relaxing now that Will was gone, "That she found something we didn't."

"Like what?" Hotaru asked.

"Let's find out." Her strawberry-blond friend replied, setting off for Hotaru's room.

"Let's see..." She spoke as the pair entered the room, "Where haven't we searched?"

"Well... we searched the drawers, the desk, and the closet. Did you find everything under the bed?" Hotaru mused.

"Ah... No, now that I think about it. Just as I pulled up the covers you called my attention to the scrap book." Chibiusa replied, walking over to the bed and pulling up the cover to reveal the box Will had found earlier.

"Will's Stuff." Chibiusa read aloud, picking it up and placing it on the bed, Hotaru walking over to her side to see what lay within. "...Letters. They're all addressed to you, and, let's see." Chibiusa sifted through them, handing them off to Hotaru, "They date back five years."

"They're written in katakana. 'Dear Taru,'" Hotaru flipped through them, and they all began the same way. "Dear Taru."

'_Today was my first day of school in the US. Communicating with everyone's not as hard as I thought it would be, thanks to mom's insistence I learn the language while I was still there over with you. I haven't made any new friends yet, but I haven't made any new enemies either. Best of luck._

_Will.'_

Hotaru continued, flipping to a random letter. "Dear Taru..."

_'I moved again, this time away from Faddon Hills. Some stuff happened, nothing to worry about, though. Just mom being a bit over-protective... I look forward to seeing you over summer vacation. We've been saving up._

_Will._

_PS, The new city's name is Heatherfield.'_

"...I remember this letter... The one we mailed Will was meant as its reply... It was never finished because... Something happened. Why can't I remember what happened, Chibiusa-chan?" Hotaru spoke, tears starting to form up.

Chibiusa looked over to the side slightly, "Well... I don't know, really. You _should_ have remembered everything but..." She shrugged helplessly. "Maybe... you didn't _want_ to remember what happened?"

"But... I had stored these letters so carefully. I don't think I would've wanted to forget her." Hotaru countered.

"What if you didn't want to forget her... but something that had to do with her? What if forgetting that trapped the memories you have of her with it?" Chibiusa hypothesized.

"Maybe... I feel like I've done something unforgivable. Will's probably hurting right now... I'm going to read all of these letters and try to remember." Hotaru spoke, sorting the letters by date.

Chibiusa sat down next to her, "You think it'll help?"

"It's better than doing nothing." Hotaru replied.

**A Thousand Dreams, Yan Lin's Room (Objective)**

While Yan Lin and Will were setting out from the Tomoe Mansion, something was shaking inside of the elderly woman's drawer. With a great crack, the drawer shot open, the lock breaking. A chest within the drawer continued shaking, wrapped in chains and bound by a padlock. It shook violently, tumbling out of the drawer, before the top began to splinter. It didn't open, bound as it was, but it did break. And through the crack shot something small and surrounded by a pink glow. Breaking a hole in the window as it went, it rocketed off into the city to parts unknown.

**En Route to A Thousand Dreams, Several Blocks Away from the Tomoe Mansion (Will)**

Will was walking alongside Yan Lin, who was trying unsuccessfully to cheer her, when she noticed something, glowing against the backdrop of the sky faintly... and growing more vibrant at a rapid pace. "What is that?" She asked, and Yan Lin paused, looking toward it, before palming her forehead and sighing.

"Destiny." The elderly woman replied, exasperated.

Before Will could respond, the light grew much more pronounced before hitting her like a commit, knocking her backwards. When she regained her sense an dopened her eyes, there was an odd, crystal-like pendant floating iin front of her, surrounded by a pink glow. "Um... Miss Lin...?"

In response, Yan Lin shrugged, to herself, looking up at the sky, before turning to Will. "Put it on, tuck it under your shirt... No need to draw any unnecessary attention."

Of course, even though Yan Lin said that, the street was oddly bereft of traffic anyway, on car or on foot, other than themselves. Will took it hesitantly, placing it around her neck at Yan Lin's encouragement. "Come on now, we'd better hurry home... I've got a story to tell if I'm right about all of you girls..."

**Tomoe Mansion, Hotaru's Room (Hotaru)**

Hotaru's head snapped up, looking out her window, surprising Chibiusa who was looking through the photo album Hotaru had found. "What is it, Taru?" Her best friend asked.

"I just felt... Something. I don't know what." Hotaru responded. "Like someone looking over my shoulder..."

**Tokyo (Objective)**

Likewise, Michiru, Rei, and Setsuna all felt something similar. They could all tell _something_ had just happened. No one could tell what, though.

**A Thousand Dreams, the Girls' Room (Will)**

The pendent, which had shone so brightly surely half the city had seen it, now glowed only dimly, hidden away beneath Will's shirt, fastened onto the same chain that held the half an amulet she'd retrieved from Hotaru's room. It gave the impression the small, pink tear had a wing, and was missing one. As a result, the pair consisting of herself and Yan Lin attracted no more than the cursory inspection Will's red hair had acquired them the first time around. They made good time and had found their way to the inn without incident. When the girls had entered the room, shutting the door behind them, the pendent shone like the sun once more, lifting out of Will's shirt, the wing hanging behind, and blinding those present momentarily before dimming.

Yan Lin nodded, having confirmed something. Cornelia, however, was the first to speak.

"Um... Will, what is _that_?"

In response, Will shrugged. Yan Lin answered instead, "This, young Cornelia, is the Heart of Kandrakar... A very special amulet, and one you'll be seeing often in the future, I expect."

"Wha'cha mean by that?" Irma asked.

"Would you like to hear a story?" The elderly woman asked, smiling knowingly. Hesitantly, all involved nodded, and were left with the distinct feeling they hadn't had much a choice.

"Once, countless years ago, there was a kingdom besieged by forces outside its control. The princess of that kingdom went to meet with each of the five great dragons which plagued the land to ask for aid against these unknown forces. She had determined the dragons had no real malicious intent, but rather were confident humans would be able to survive their actions, and perhaps grow better for it. The dragons agreed to help the kingdom, as it was their home as well. One by one they pledged their power to the princess, who acted absorbed their power, acting as a conduit for their actions as the people would never accept the help of the dragons... The power was too much for her to control alone, and so she went out into the land to find five champions to split the power among. As each champion wielded the dragons' power, the princess acted as a conduit to allow them to wield that power. In the end, it was not enough, and the kingdom was destroyed. The princess, blessed by the dragons, survived. She gathered the spirits of all those who had once lived there into herself, and transformed into a small gem which was sent into the hands of one who would know what to do with it..."

The elderly woman paused, catching her breath, "That kingdom's name was Kandracar. The heart has been used since its creation to prevent those forces outside the veil from acting in this world, or any other. Since the very first, the Heart has chosen its own wielder and its own champions. I believe that now, it has chosen you."

There were a few brief moments of silence before it was broken, "You're kidding, right?" Irma quipped.

"No, I am not." The old woman said, "Tell me, has anything unusual happened to you within the past year or so?"

"Last week Corny here managed to grow a plant, does that count?" The girl responded.

"I sneezed a few days ago and it trashed me room." Hay-Lin inserted brightly.

"Both signs that your powers are awakening... The final proof is the Heart itself, choosing Will as its keeper after all these years... Though never has it been known to react so... vehemently to its bearer."

"But... That only counts for three of us. What about the Irma and I?" Taranee asked.

"Well, Taranee..." Yan Lin spoke as she gathered a candle, "Why don't you focus on this candle?"

Taranee did as requested, staring at the candle, which spontaneously burst into flame as Yan Lin placed a glass of water next to it. "And Irma..."

Without needing to be told, Irma did the same, and a small stream of water came out of the glass before shooting over and splashing Cornelia in the face, prompting the blond to let out an indignant, "Hey!"

"Sorry Corny." Irma spoke, though her face pointed to the contrary.

Will on the other hand, looked to be thinking, "What about the fifth?" She asked. "I've got the Heart, so it's not me, right?"

Yan Lin's smiling face soured, "You are correct, Will... The fifth guardian of the heart has not been chosen for a long, long time. Not since the very first bearer of the Heart."

"Why?" The girl asked inquisitively.

Yan Lin sighed, "It's a story better left untold, but I will relate it anyway, as it was related to me..."

The aging woman waved her hand over the heart, conjuring forth an image of a castle on a plateau overlooking a surreal, violet hued forest. Around the castle and in the distance were cities of towering spires that reached almost to the heights of the castle's door, which was several hundred feet above the ground. "This was her home." Yan Lin spoke, waving her hand again. The image shimmered and changed into the image of a small garden enclosed by large, gray stone walls. Inside it, tending a bush covered in small flowers, was a girl in a black dress with matching hair, her face overshadowed. All that could be seen were her eyes, more expressive than any face the girls viewing had ever seen. "...And this was her," Yan Lin continued, "alone in the garden, with no one her age for company... No company at all, save a token guard around the edge, and the occasional visit from her mother. Even that was gone by the time she met the other guardians and the first bearer of the heart." The image seemed to lose its color, everything save for the eyes of the girl in the garden fading into gray, and then black, until event he eyes were gone as they closed.

The image then changed into a view of the forest from the ground. The trees so high and ancient the blocked out the sky, the ground lacking any foliage save short grass and fungus. The girl was here again, carving something into one of the trees with a small stone. Soon, however, another girl came across her and spoke to her, though the words were not audible tot he viewers. "It was here she first met the bearer of the heart. The fifth guardian would always come back here, continuing her carving of the tree, and the first keeper of the heart would always come by to see if the fifth would be there again. Eventually, they became friends." The image shifted to show the fifth returning and, instead of carving in the tree, waiting on the other to arrive. When she did, they began to play games. Simple things such as tag, hide and seek, and similar. "They grew closer, and eventually the fifth was taken to meet the other guardians, though none of them knew it yet." The scene rippled like water and changed once more, showing a group of six girls, faces all either blurry and indistinct, shadowed over, or just plain impossible to see from this angle. "And then they received the heart..." The scene rippled again, the same as before, but with the inclusion of the heart floating in the midst of them. "There was not much activity from beyond the veil in that time, for whatever reason. The five of them simply met as friends, occasionally having to deal with something minor together, but most of the time just living as normal girls should... with the exception of the fifth."

The image changed once more, to show the fifth standing by herself in a shadowed corner as others laughed and made merry at a table. "This is where the true tragedy of the story begins to unfold... The fifth had no other friends than the other guardians. No other company. She was treated like a pariah... Like a volatile bomb. The fifth had other responsibilities than those of a guardian, it seemed. Other powers. Only her mother ever showed her any attention at home. Only the guardians provided her the friendship a girl her age needed. Aside from these brief spans of time, she was alone in her high castle, always trying to stay out of sight and mind of those within." The color surrounding the fifth once again began to fade away into nothingness until it seemed she was standing alone in a spotlight in the middle of a vast sea of darkness. "And then her mother died, and she stopped visiting the garden. Stopped visiting the guardians. She isolated herself in her grief." The image changed once more, showing the garden from before, overgrown. A petal fell off one of the flowers there, and the image faded into black. "And then... She broke."

The image changed, showing a picture of what could only be described as hell. The city and forests were all aflame. People were frozen in pictures of terror, stone as the rock of the castle walls. At the highest point of the castle stood the fifth, watching everything burn, even as the tower she stood on did as well. And then... A ferocious wind spread from h er, conjuring up enormous walls of dust and ash. It spread across the land like a great tsunami, and in its wake it left nothing but dust. The sky above grew stormy and ruinous. All that remained was the castle, an island in a sea of chaos and destruction. All within it was now gone, nothing left save the fifth as she stood atop it. "She destroyed everything. There was nothing left but the castle she had grown in, and then, perhaps, only by fluke. But the worst of the story has yet to come... The other guardians confronted her."

"This isn't going to end well at all..." Will spoke quietly, garnering nods of agreement.

"It didn't." Yan Lin confirmed. The image changed again, showing the fifth and the keeper of the heart facing each other. All around them were strewn the bodies of the other guardians. "She killed them. Only the keeper of the heart remained now, and she would have no doubt been lost as well were it not for the Oracle pulling her from the palace." The image was slowly consumed with flames. "The fifth slept then, a fitful, unnatural sleep that no one could explain or even desired to. Years later... the first keeper of the heart returned, convinced that she could somehow save or redeem her friend... She died trying to reach her, the planet had grown so hazardous. The fifth was never seen or heard from again."

Yan Lin took a deep breath and let it out, "For whatever reason, the Heart has yet to pick a fifth guardian again..."

"So..." Cornelia spoke as the Heart dimmed, "What set her off... I mean... she couldn't have just done all that for no reason, right?"

The elderly woman the question was directed at just shrugged in response, "Nobody knows for sure. This happened countless years ago, after all."

"Supernatural stories aside, we haven't told each other what we discovered." Irma announced, breaking the tense air of the room.

"Well," Taranee said, "It seems the Sailor Senshi are local heroes... or heroines, since all of the senshi are girls. According to Gorou and several magazines they're a magical vigilante group. They deal with a variety of supernatural things like demons and monsters that prey on innocent civilians." She gestured to Cornelia and the others.

"The Heart-Snatchers were their last enemies. They allegedly stole people's 'pure heart crystals,' hence their name. The senshi are apparently the only ones that know much more than that."

"In other words," Irmo spoke, "We've learned next to nothing. What about you, Will?"

"...I met Hotaru." Will spoke after a brief moment of silence.

Yan Lin stilled the oncoming tide of questions as Will continued, "We didn't really speak much at all... I kind of just ditched when she showed up. She said she was afraid of meeting me... Her eyes were almost dead. There was only the barest hint of anything close to recognition there... I checked her room; she took extreme care of the letters I sent her and a few of my things, but the chest was dusty and under her bed – it hadn't been touched for a long time."

"So... she really didn't remember you?" Hay Lin asked, and Will simply nodded in response.

"Think these 'Heart-Snatchers' have anything to do with it?" Taranee proposed.

"Wouldn't even consider it normally but, given what just happened a few minutes ago," Will replied, gesturing to Yan Lin and the Heart as she did so, "and the fact that the proposed final battle took place in, and leveled most of, her school... I'd say they, or something they did, had a definite hand in it."

"So... What can we do about it?" Cornelia inquired, "I mean, sure, we could keep pressing her or whatever, but what if that doesn't work or she takes it badly?"

"Well..." Yan Lin spoke, "There's not much you can do that you haven't done already." The aging woman placed her hands on Will's shoulders, "the process has begun, we can only hope it will come full circle. In the mean time, you girls need to learn how to use your powers. I don't think garnering the senshi's attention right now would be too wise, so I'll just verbally instruct you on the matter..."


	6. Beginnings 5

_**Disclaimer: Neither W.I.T.C.H. Nor Sailor Moon nor anything else that might pop up belong to the writer of this story.**_

_**Author's Note, Taeniaea: Sorry about the lack of author's notes, only just now noticed just how few there were... none after the first chapter.**_

_**Author's Note, Rimshooter: ...Yeah, that's probably my fault. Same for the delay. (Is shot. Explodes into fire and is revealed to be unharmed as it dissipates). Well... I was -going- to say you an shoot me, but... Don't blame Tae for Hotaru's predicament, it was my idea. If anyone rages about the Heart later... my idea again, niether of us could get past that point so I just figured we could wing it and see what happened.**_

_**Chapter V: Beginnings, Part 5**_

**(Hotaru)**

_Hotaru ran through the house, smiling and laughing quietly to herself as she entered a random, inconspicuous door. It was a closet, filled with linens, and lacking light so that Hotaru didn't close the door all the way but, instead, left it cracked open slightly, peering outward through the narrow window this crack formed. Shortly afterward, a red-haired girl ran by, but stopped and turned around, noticing the closet door that was slightly ajar. The smile on the girl's face the only visible feature Hotaru could see other than her hair, the girl reached to the closet handle and pulled it open._

_Hotaru fell into darkness._

_She fell out of herself, spiraling down into the abyss away from the girl and her younger self. The closet became a small speck in the distance as Hotaru sank ever downward... and then it disappeared, and Hotaru hit the ground... hard. She lay on the ground, arms and legs limp, like some rag doll that had been cast aside. Her blurred vision saw a chaotic mix of red, black, and white._

_The sound of bells._

_A light shone from above, and Hotaru's vision cleared to revel that she was laying in a pool of blood. The floor all about her was obsidian black as well as smooth and hard as glass. And cold. So very cold that it numbed Hotaru's body of the pain she was sure she should be feeling right now._

_The sound of bells again._

_A massive pair of doors barred with chains and locks of every sort appeared before Hotaru. Looking closer, Hotaru noticed that despite the chains, the doors were pushed slightly open, presenting a narrow gap._

_The sound of bells._

_Hotaru blinked, and suddenly a faceless figure stood before the door. It was a girl, about her height and build, wearing a long, flowing black dress. From her left ear hung a small, silver bell._

"_**-"** The girl said something, but Hotaru couldn't make out what it was. Suddenly, the doors, the girl, and the blood all melted away._

Hotaru awoke suddenly and without warning, her eyes snapping open and vision slightly blurred. As her eyes came into focus, she found herself staring at the ceiling of Chibiusa's room. Dawn's early rays filtered in through the curtains, dimly lighting it.

**A Thousand Dreams (Will)**

Will awoke without much fanfare, eyes simply opening to stare at the ceiling above. Nearby, her friends shifted in their sleep. The room had a single bed, which Will had been given, while everyone else slept on a futon that had been pulled out, simply because Gorou figured it'd be more practical. Looking over her friends sleeping form's, Will found herself agreeing... Even with bunk-beds, they'd only be able to fit four people in the room, which meant someone would have to sleep on the floor or share... completely disregarding how much of a hassle it was to set up bunk-beds in the first place. Through the window drifted the day's early morning light.

'_I woke up early... Not too surprising... It's probably going to bite me in the back later, though.'_ Will thought as she carefully navigated the room to the door, which opened outward, thankfully. The hallway was unlit as well, and even darker, though there was a window at the end that provided some light. Making her way downstairs, Will noticed Gorou wasn't at the desk. Instead there was a hired attendant, who had apparently fallen asleep on the job. It was a girl no more than two years older than her, so Will figurd she was working part time. Will let her sleep, stepping outside and sitting on the front steps, taking in the morning air and trying to find some sort of solace.

Life had been far too exciting recently.

The letters she'd been writing to Hotaru had finally been replied to after about a year of silence... and Hotaru had apparently forgotten Will completely. And then Will received another letter from Hotaru, this one being dated a year ago and apparently having never been mailed until Hotaru's friend chanced upon it. And included within was a family picture, allegedly found by the same friend. And then there were the anonymous notes on the back of the letters... Add in coming all the way to Japan to find out the truth of the matter, encountering Hotaru herself and having the girl's amnesia solidified as reality, and now, most recently, finding out she was some sort of magical guardian of reality or something... and Will was feeling rather overwhelmed.

'_Today I learn how to use supernatural abilities that I'd be just as happy without. There's so much else on the plate already...'_

"Penny for your thoughts?" A voice came from behind.

Will turned to see the attendant from the desk standing in the doorway. "Trust me... You really couldn't know the half of it."

"Oh? That bad?" The elder girl responded.

"It's a tangled mess of problems one after another that all lack explanations and solutions." Will answered.

"So try me, what've you got to lose?"

Will's eyebrow rose, "A sense of privacy?"

"Well, yeah... But it doesn't look like you're going to be figuring it out by yourself any time soon. Besides, looking at you all bummed out on the steps kills my mood too."

"You speak English rather well." Will noted.

The girl shrugged, "It comes with managing an inn that gets mostly tourists from the States."

Will turned back to the street, noting the sky was considerably brighter. If she were to hazard a guess, Will would say it's about time for everyone else to wake up.

"Alright, don't tell me what's up." The girl said upon Will's dropping of the conversation, the girl paused before speaking once more, "This your first visit to Japan?"

"No." Will replied simply. "You usually spend your work-hours chatting to the visitors?"

"No," the girl answered, "You just looked like you need to talk to someone."

"Yukari!" Gorou's voice came from within, "Where are you?"

The girl, Yukari, winced upon hearing the agitation in Gorou's voice. "Crap, I got caught. Talk to you later, Will." Yukari left then, entering through the front doors, a sheepish expression on her face.

'_How'd she know my name?'_ Will thought as Yukari vanished through the door. '_Maybe Gorou told her... we're his only tenants at the moment, and we kind of stand out from each other.'_

"Hey Will," Irma spoke, walking through the door, "Know anything about the commotion inside?"

"A little... Apparently Yukari was at the desk in place of Gorou, but she left it to talk with me outside... Gorou woke up before she went in." Will explained.

"Ouch. So what'd she talk to you about?"

"Nothing, really," The red-head answered.

"Hm..." Irma trailed off, clearly unconvinced, "Well, doesn't matter, I guess. Granny wants us upstairs in her room to talk about... well, you know."

Will nodded. The two girls left through the foyer, past a chastised and dejected looking Yukari, and up to Yan-Lin's room. Upon entering, the two saw the rest of their group had assembled. At the sound of the door opening, Yan-Lin turned to the two new arrivals.

"Ah, Will, Irma..." She said, "...We were just discussing a possible location where you could practice your powers without drawing attention to yourselves... Unfortunately, all the places I once knew are now no longer available. Do you have any suggestions, Will?"

Will paused, thinking about it. Here was a problem that was, in comparison to the others, relatively easy to solve, and thus it gave her a sort of buffer between them for the time being, allowing her to focus on one thing. '_The park we used to go to will be too populous... Same for most of our old places..._'

"...I can't really think of any places where there won't be many people to see... not during the day, anyway." Will admitted, and Yan-Lin nodded.

"We'll have to wait until night falls then, there's no helping it. In the mean time... you don't look so well. Do you want to talk?"

"No... not right now." Will stated, pointedly avoiding contact with any of her friends' gazes.

"Why don't we practice in the sewers?" Hay Lin suggested, only to be immediately shot down by Cornelia.

"No way! What if we accidentally damage them? And besides... they're _sewers_. You're not getting me down there, any circumstances."

"Hm..." Yan Lin mused to herself as the group of friends began tossing out ideas and then shooting them down just as fast. As their brainstorming activity continued, Will's attention was temporarily averted as her neck began to grow slightly warm. Looking down, she saw the Heart of Kandrikar was now glowing brightly and hovering above her collar. The others noticed it as well, and the room was temporarily silent, as Yan Lin exclaimed to herself, "Ah! How could I have forgotten-"

Without warning, the room was enveloped in a blast of pink light, which soon faded away, leaving an empty room behind with none the wiser. Elsewhere, in her room, Ami Mizuno's computer signaled an alert, and she checked it quickly, only for whatever it detected to be gone. "How odd..."

**Somewhere Else... (Will)**

When Will's vision cleared, she found herself standing on a barren plain under a scarlet sky, surrounded by her friends, with nothing else to see any direction.

"...we can use the Heart to enter a barren dimension."

As the guardians took in their surroundings... or relative lack thereof, Irma pointed out a flaw with this plan of action.

"So how do we know how long we've been in here? I don't know about you, but I don't see a clock or anything laying around and I didn't bring my watch."

In response, Yan-Lin pointed to Will. "We can only stay here so long. The Heart will pull us back when that time has elapsed... We have three or four hours worth of time for now. But you should still take the opportunity, no sense wasting any time."

"Not like there's anything else to do." The water-user responded as the others gathered about.

"So... how do we practice when there's nothing to practice with?" Cornelia asked.

"Simple." The elderly woman answered, "Will just needs to think about releasing the full extent of your powers."

As if on cue, Will cupped the Heart in her hands, speaking the words, "Guardians, unite!"

Another wave of power washed over her, several beams of light shooting out, one to each girl present, and another to Will, encasing them all in a sphere of energy. When these dissipated, there were slightly talller and older, but, more notable, they were dressed in odd, tightly fitting clothes with a pair of butterfly-like wings adorning each of their backs.

"So... where's Puck?" Irma said upon taking in their appearances. Upon the end of her sentence, another beam of light shot out into the sky, only to fall forward, as if running out of energy, before it could travel outside their line of sight.

A slightly worried frown appeared on Yan-Lin's face.

**Tsukino House, Chibiusa's Room (Hotaru)**

Little had happened since the time Hotaru had awoke from her nightmare, but she was just beginning to hear the sounds of activity downstairs.

In that span, Hotaru had simply sat, leaning against the bed she'd slept in after she got ready for the day... thinking about the events she'd witnessed in her dream. '_Will and I were really close... or were we? I can't tell anymore. Everything was so messed up!'_ In all the time she'd been awake... Hotaru had yet to come to any sot of grips with the subject she was thinking about. It didn't help that her memory of it was already growing progressively more mixed up and vague.

That was when her communicator rang... preceding an odd feeling of being left out of something. Shaking it off, Hotaru pulled the communicator from where she'd stored it, opening it to see Ami's face.

"Sorry to bother you, but something's just come up. We're going to hold an impromptu meeting... Could you wake Chibiusa and Usagi up?"


	7. Beginnings Final

_**Disclaimer: Neither W.I.T.C.H. Nor Sailor Moon nor anything else that might pop up belong to the writer of this story.**_

_**Author's Note, Taeniaea: Things are finally starting to pick up.**_

_**Author's Note, Rimshooter: As stated, the plot thickens.**_

_**Chapter VI: Beginnings Final**_

It had taken Hotaru some time to wake her fellow scouts, but it was done. From then on, it was a relatively short journey to today's designated meeting place. As always, once everyone had been assembled, Ami was quick to get to the point.

"I received a strange energy reading a few minutes ago that doesn't match up with anything in the database... but it also disappeared almost immediately after coming to attention, so there's very little data to work with... have any of you received any recent visions or premonitions?"

Hotaru looked at the faces of her comrades slightly nervously as Michiru and Rei both announced they had felt a vague premonition, but nothing they could discern anything from. Questioning Setsuna lead to a complete lack of response, as she had locked herself in the time gates and couldn't attend... which was usually a bad sign.

"What about you, Taru?" Chibiusa questioned, looking at her friend. As one, the scouts' attention focused on Hotaru... and increased when she averted her gaze nervously.

"I'm not sure..." She answered. In truth, her memory of the dream was extremely vague and confusing by this point, and it was hard enough to try and make sense of it when it was still fresh in her mind. "I don't think it could be a vision... visions usually stay clear in my mind indefinitely. I think it was just a nightmare..."

The collective group stared at her a moment or so more, before breaking up into different conversations. All of them but Chibiusa, whose attention remained on Hotaru. "Was it about Will?" She asked quietly.

In response, Hotaru simply nodded. "Some of it..."

"And the rest?" Ami prompted.

Hotaru shook her head, "I can't remember anything specific. Just Will, my house, and falling."

"Falling?" Chibiusa asked, but Hotaru shook her head again.

"I don't remember anything else about it."

"Well, be careful going out," Ami said, "If you meet Will again, let us know if anything unusual happens around the same time."

Hotaru nodded, and the meeting broke up into the usual bickering, chatting, and so forth.

"_The pale light fades, hidden by a false cloud. Evening comes as the moonlight bade, the garden hides in night's shroud."_

Blinking, Hotaru looked around in surprise, searching for the source of the voice she'd just heard, only to find nothing. Beside her, Chibiusa watched with a concerned expression

"Something wrong?" She asked.

"Maybe." Hotaru admitted, bewildered.

The meeting broke up shortly thereafter, and Hotaru left with Haruka and Michiru amidst promises to notify the others if anything odd was noticed.

**O**

"_What is a family? Why does it matter so much to you?"_

**O**

-**Will** **(Barren Dimmension)**

Will sighed tiredly, allowing herself to fall on her rump as the rest of the newly-minted guardians followed suit.

"Well..." Irma spoke up, "...I think you missed a spot, Granny Lin. My face isn't sore."

"It's not so bad, is it?" The elderly woman asked, a kindly smile on her face. "Just basic drills..."

Her response was a united glare from the four Guardians laying on the ground in front of her.

Yan Lin chuckled, glancing up into the sky. "And look, there's Hay Lin."

On cue, the spritely girl smiled, calling out to those below as she whizzed by. "Why are you all so tired? This is fun!"

Will shook her head incredulously, "How does she do that so easily?"

"She's an airhead. It helps her float." Irma answered tiredly.

Cornelia gave a frustrated sigh as she pulled out a long, vicious looking needle – no doubt courtesy of a nearby plant that was oversized and covered with various pointy things, "I'm not sure if I would prefer that to these thorns, to be honest,"

"At least you don't have an element you're afraid of," Taranee muttered, puffing out a small stream of smoke.

"Fire is fueled by emotion, Taranee," Yan Lin lectured, "Fearing it only gives it more strength. You need to calm yourself."

The girl treated Yan Lin to a despondent glare via her scorched face, "Easy for you to say. You're not the one getting their hair burned off."

Yan Lin might have had another good-humored jab to make at the fire user, but it was cut short when the heart glowed again and everyone in the group suddenly found themselves enveloped in soft, pink light.

**-Ami**

Ami's computer suddenly gave a loud beep, prompting a suppressed sigh of irritation. She was in the library, after all, and now she was the center of attention. Particularly, the only other person in the library – a girl with short, dark-brown hair, was leveling a glare at her. '_How can someone look so passive, yet send a message of such fury?'_ The bluenette wondered as she opened her lap top. A fanukuar pink dot was flashing regularly on screen at the edge of the district. '_That reading again.'_ She noted.

Just as she was about to stand and head out, she spotted another dot of power, violet-black in color. '_Saturn? But...'_ Her eyes flitted to where another, smaller dot marked Hotaru's location in civilian form. '_How does _that_ work? I need to notify the others. It looks like there's about to be a fight.'_

When Ami passed the other reader, they turned, eyes tracking her as she left. "Wonder where she's going in such a hurry?" The girl asked. There was a muffled thump, and the girl leaned over to look below her desk, where another girl was tied up in steel cables, a gag in her mouth. The girl's companion writhed and squirmed furiously, trying to say something as the first stared at her, blank-faced.

"You're being too noisy, Fia." She spoke at last, placing her foot on the other girl's head and pressing it into the floor.

A small whimper echoed throughout the empty library.

"No, you can't go help Syl. You'll hurt somebody."

A muffled grunt.

"Don't bother. I know you too well."

Another grunt, this one angry.

"I'll tell onee-sama."

Silence.

"Good girl." The foot on the bound girl's head patted her... inadvertently kicking it into the floor several times.

Fia's whimpers continued to echoe long afterward.

**-Will**

"This always going to happen?" Irma asked from her place, head sticking out of a pile of limbes and bodies, "Because if it is, I want to know where the resignation papers are..."

As Yan Lin opened her mouth to respond from her place standing nearby, she was interrupted as Hay Lin materialized mid-flight and flew herself into a nearby trash-can before she could stop.

A small giggle brought the group's attention to a girl with sandy blond hair, dressed in a simple white dress. She pointed at Hay Lind, eyes closed with mirth and hand pinching the bridge of her nose. "You guys are funny. I like you already!"

There was a period of awkward silence as the W.I.T.C.H. Members untangled themselves and helped Hay Lin out of the trash can... broken only by the little gir's persistent giggling.

"So... um..." Will started as they all faced her. "...we're just figments of your imagination?"

The girl laughed even louder, "That's original! I should try that next time... oh, wait..." She trailed off sky-blue eyes wide as she clapped her hands over her mouth.

"Next time?" Taranee asked nervously.

The girl shook her head. "No – nothing. Didn't say anything!"

The group stared at her, expressions clearly stating, _"We're not buying it."_

"Um... er..." She mumbled, backing up rapidly. "You need to watch.." She started, before clapping her hands even tighter to her face.

The Heart of Kandricar leaped from its place around Will's neck, pointing at the girl accusingly.

"Mou... Fia was right. I blew it in the first five seconds." The girl kicked the side of a building angrily... only to hold her foot in pain, revealing the glowing violet lines under her eyes. "Now we have to fight, and I wanted to play a game first! Rumina's going to be so angry..."

A swarm of small, wraith-like creatures sprang up from the shadows all around the group as, with a flash of violet light, the girl transformed into...

...a black Guardian?

"My name is Syl. It's nice to meet you!" She declared, hovering into the air, "I'm supposed to test you or distract your or something... so let's play a little! I want to see how good you are!"

"Well... today just got a lot better."

The dark wraiths closed in on the guardians eagerly.


	8. Matters of the Heart, Winds and Shadows

_**Disclaimer: Neither W.I.T.C.H. Nor Sailor Moon nor anything else that might pop up belong to the writer of this story.**_

_**Author's Note, Taeniaea: **Lot of stuff got revealed, and we finally have an antagonist! Kind of feel sorry for Fia, though..._

_**Author's Note, Rimshooter: **Phew... lot of stuff happened this chapter. We took a little creative license regarding Saturn's vague – no, ultra-vague past life, so... this is the product. Hope it makes up for the long delay and shortness of the previous chapter (which was more of an intro to this chapter designed to get the ball rolling)._

_**EDIT NOTE (Taeniaea):**_ _Sorry about the re-upload, we caught several spelling mistakes._

_**Chapter VII: Matters of the Heart, **Winds of Shadows_

Syl held out her hand, one finger extended, and a barely visible drill of wind began spiraling around it, growing in size to cover the entire arm.

"Scatter!" Will cried out just before the drill sped away from the hand. As Hay Lin took to the air again, the rest of the group threw themselves to the side... just as the drill impacted the ground, forming a neat hole.

"You know, you guys can fly too." Syl commented as she formed five drills around each finger of one hand, "Why don't you copy Air's example?"

"It's like a manager telling her lazy employees to copy the over-eager new guy," Irma commented... just before Syl released the next wave of drills.

"I heard that!" Syl sang, another wave of drills already prepared as the guardians threw themselves to the side (or weaved around in Hay Lin's case) the drills.

Still standing in the place from before, Yan Lin rose a brow as she tilted her head to the side, avoiding a potential mis-fire. Above, Syl was flying circles around Hay Lin, firing drills toward the guardians with reckless abbadon, as if she were playing some bizarre form of tag. 'Definitely_ a former guardian...'_ Yan Lin decided, before turning her eyes to the small army of wraiths that were harassing the guardians whenever Syl's attention was turned away, '_But judging from those shadows... I don't like the feel of this at all.'_

"Agh! Enough of this!" Cornelia exclaimed, furious. In a miraculous (or fluke) demonstration of control, a barrage of roots and vines erupted from the concrete, snaring Syl... only for the girl to smile and vanish into thin-air, prompting the roots to fall slack. Moments later, she re-appeared in the same place and position, another barrage of drills set to fire.

"Nice try blondie," Their pixie-like opponent called out, "but you don't have _anything_ on Rumina-nee's binds!" _Especially when she's angry...'_

The drills fired... only to strike a slab of overturned earth. "Hypocrite! Your hair is blond too!"

"But I'm not a withered old hag!" The girl responded smilingly as her drills converged, tearing through the wall with ease, prompting Cornelia to freeze up in shock and anger.

Cornelia didn't dodge, so Irma knocked her to the side with a well-placed blast of water. Seeing the blond guardian still sputtering incoherently, not even registering the fact she was now soaked, "I think we've lost her." The water-user commented lightly. "Withered old hag – I'll have to remember that one."

In response, Cornelia turned a glare that could melt steel and kill forests on her, "Not. Hearing that. From you!" She exclaimed... only for a large cactus to grow up from beneath her.

In the air, Syl was shaking like a leaf, finger pointed at Irma. Hay Lin waved her hand in front of the girl's face, to no avail. "Guys... I think something's wrong with her." The air guardian noted...

...only to be blown away by a sudden gust of wind coming from the girl. "Sorry about that. Surprised me for a moment." She glanced at Hay Lin, her smile growing more pronounced, "Oh come on, you can't disperse that little thing?"

"I'm still learning," The girl complained, rubbing her rear from where she struck the concrete, "Today was our first day."

"Really? I thought you were doing pretty good." Syl commented, when a new voice cut in.

"This is Sailor Saturn under the protection of my guardian star," The battle, if it could be called such, froze as everyone present turned to a trio of individuals on a nearby roof-top. To the guardians, it was a chance (albeit a poor one) to see the senshi in action, and maybe ask them about Mugen Academy... '_or not,'_ Taranee thought, glancing at Will.

Syl, in contrast to the curiosity and surprise of the guardians, looked on the verge of panic, "Hi-" She clapped her hands over her mouth. "I – er.. .um... Play with you later, bye!" With that, she faded from view. The wraiths sank back into the shadows, drawing a concerned frown from Yan Lin.

"Well, that was sudden," Irma noted... just as a spiraling sphere of wind rocketed its way toward Will with a cry of '_World Shaking!'_

"Will!" The guardians called out, prompting a flinch from Saturn as the sphere drew closer to striking the red-haired Keeper of the Heart... only to bounce off a pale pink barrier of energy and dissipate in the air.

.

Newly minted or not, the guardians still formed a human shield around Will the moment hostilities became apparent. Too much had been going on too fast, and it all seemed to revolve around the newest addition to their circle.

"You always introduce yourselves this way? I can see why you're not as popular." Cornelia said

"Well, Saturn hasn't moved since she first spoke – and she's more popular than the other two combined." Irma reminded, taking her chance to join the banter, "Lesson Learned: Blasting people doesn't make you many friends – nice to know."

At this point the wind senshi was a sputtering mess and the other older one, who'd yet to move, was stifling a small laugh at her comrades expression. Still, she was an outer too and her pride was also on the line. It was tempting, oh so tempting, to show them why it was a bad idea to bring her temper out of its shell... but Saturn was looking at her nervously, a pleading expression on her face. '_She recognizes one of them too, somehow.'_ Giving a mental sigh of defeat, Neptune refrained from following through with the attack she'd been preparing.

"Well, the past several times we've stumbled upon a scene such as this... every non-senshi involved in the fighting has been a you ma or similar. Since you clearly know who we are," She passed a surreptitious gaze over Uranus' still sputtering form, "who are you, and what are you doing here?"

"We're the Guardians of the Heart of Kandricar," Will responded from her place amidst her friends, and, ignoring a somewhat reproving glance from Yan Lin, kept speaking, "We're kind of new to this, but... I have a question for you, that I really need answered."

'_Kandricar... why does that sound so familiar?'_ At the next statement, her brow rose, "Really? What kind of question?"

"I have a younger sister," She started, and a cold shiver ran down Saturn's spine, "She was involved in the Heart Snatchers attacks somehow... I... was she a victim?"

Uranus gave the response then, her face a cold mask, "That depends, what was her name?"

Will took a deep breath, "Tomoe... Tomoe Hotaru."

The Silence Glaive fell out of Saturn's grip.

**-Syl (Library)**

"Rumina-nee, Hime-sama just-" Syl paused, staring at the scene closer. "Why is Fia-nee tied up beneath your feet?"

"She was being noisy," The other answered serenely, "What about Hime-sama?"

"Ah!" Syl clapped her hand and a fist together... only to sigh in defeat, "I forgot."

As Fia banged her forehead against the floor, Rumina only nodded, patting Syl's head softly, "You'll remember. How'd the young ones do?"

"It was totally one-sided," The wind-user answered dejectedly, "The only one who really did any good was Air. Earth managed to snare me once... but then she got herself trapped in a bear hug by one of her own cacti."

"What about Water, Fire, and the Keeper?" Rumina continued passively.

"Water was scary. She reminded me of onee-sama... if onee-sama was trying to prank someone." The three of them shivered in unison, Rumina's passive smile faltering somewhat, "Fire was afraid of her element," Fia snarled through her gag, "and the Keeper was good at dodging things... not much else."

"What about their personalities?" The older girl asked, recovering her previous cheer... if it could be called such.

"Earth was a total hag," One of the pats on Syl's head multiplied in strength exponentially, sending the child into the ground. "Ah! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" She cried as Rumina blinked, looking down at Syl.

"Are you alright? Did you trip on something?" She asked, picking Syl up and dusting her off.

"You remind me of onee-sama sometimes – scary..." The girl shivered as Rumina looked on, nonplussed.

"How so?" The elder asked, tilting her head to the side, a curious expression on her face.

Syl only shivered again, "I don't think you'd understand even if I told you..."

Rumina seemed to contemplate this for a couple more seconds before shrugging, "What about the others?"

Syl fingered her chin, "Air was fun. She was better than the others, at least... but she couldn't disperse a basic gust. Guess I got my hopes up too much. She took it easily though, unlike the others... the others... I didn't really get any other impression of them." Suddenly, she clapped her hands again, "Oh yeah, they had this really nice old lady with them too. She could dispel my air drills – didn't even lift a finger to do it, either!"

"Probably the former Air," Rumina noted, before picking a new book from the shelves and sitting down.

"But I'm-" Syl started, only to be interrupted by Rumina.

"-over nine hundred years her senior. And a mere shadow, like the rest of us."

Syl sank to the floor, depressed. "I know. Don't remind me..."

"That wasn't my intention." Rumina stated opening her book, "but you should keep in mind... how many times might the Heart have changed hands, in all this time?"

The three of them grew silent... though Fia didn't have much choice in the matter.

Suddenly, Rumina marked her place and shut the book, glancing to Syl, "The young ones are about to be interrupted. The inners are going to cause some misunderstandings, and the young ones have only just recently cleared the last one."

"Ooooh!" Syl stated, excited, "I've always wanted to try fighting one of the inners!"

"Do you want me to come with you... Fia is getting impatient, and she might hurt somebody if I leave her alone..." Glancing down, Rumina saw a pile of severed ropes, with smoking scorch-marks on their ends. "Never mind, I'm coming too."

**-Inner Senshi (En route to the Outers)**

The senshi were racing across the rooftops at full speed toward the outers when they were interrupted by a sudden shout. "Infernal Serpents!" Two snakes made of fire appeared out of nowhere, racing toward Moon only to crash into the roof when she jumped out of the way at the last moment. "Nice dodge," The same voice continued mockingly as its source appeared, rising out of a shadow cast on the roof in their path. It was a girl with medium-length, pale brown hair and amber eyes that seemed to glitter, a violet line running under each. "Didn't expect you to be so agile there, Serenity – maybe I should try harder."

"That attack, and those eyes..." Luna started.

"Fia?" Artemis finished, "Keeper of the Flames?"

"What're you doing, attacking the princess?" Venus questioned. It was obvious Fia knew exactly who she'd just targeted, so there was no point trying to keep the secret.

Fia smirked – a broken, manic thing that wouldn't look out of place in a horror flick, "She's not _my_ Princess. She got _my_ Princess killed!" With that, another pair of flaming snakes formed on the girl's arms, racing out at Moon with the signature cry, "Infernal Serpents!"

"Venus Love-Me Chain!" Venus cried, signature golden chain appearing and dispelling the serpents, wrapping around Fia.

"Akuryo taisan!" Mars cried, tossing an ofuda at Fia... only to blink as it struck her and the brunette grinned.

"Consuming Shell!" She exclaimed and, with that, the talisman and chains vanished as a sphere of flames surrounded Fia, disappearing a moment later. "Come on, is that the best the Royal Guardians can do?"

Mars growled at the insult, only to be silenced by a placating hand from Moon. "Venus... you know her?"

The other blonde senshi glanced at moon, "We all did. Keeper of Fire. One of Saturn's friends from the Silver Millennium... also one of her most loyal servants, if I recall... but that doesn't do their relationship justice."

"And she's mad at me, because...?" Moon trailed off, fingering her chin thoughtfully.

A tic mark appeared on Fia's forehead, "You banished her, you little witch! Infernal Serpent!"

Moon blanched as another serpent sailed toward her, only to be deflected by Venus' chain again. "But I didn't banish her, did I?" Moon asked, dodging a serpent that got past Venus' defense. "I couldn't have..." she glanced to Chibi-Moon, who was letting out an ominous aura that seemed to say, '_You better not have.'_

"No, you didn't, it was your mother." Luna explained, as Artemis perked up.

"Don't worry, though. Fia's not really angry – this is her most basic attack."

"I heard that!" The enraged fire-user exclaimed, "How's this for basic? Infernal Tide!" A large mass of fire built up in front of her, before rolling toward the scouts.

"Scatter!" Venus called out, grabbing Moon and jumping as the rest of the scouts followed suit, prompting the wave to scorch the roof top but otherwise do no damage. "Just had to stick a paw in the teeth, didn't you, Artemis?"

Fia paused, ashen-faced, "That was terrible, Venus. You can do better."

Venus turned, red-faced, "It was close enough!"

"Only because it's a Mau." Fia retorted, causing the group to blink at the unfamiliar word... an opportunity Fia took to prepare another attack... only for a figure to rise out of the shadow behind her and swat the back of her head, sending her flying into the streets below with wide eyes.

"Distracting them is well and good, but if you kill Serenity, I won't forgive you... and I don't think Hime-sama will, either – her daughter's her best, and only, friend."

Fia shouted up in response, stars in her eyes, "In other words – you wouldn't care if Hime-sama didn't!"

"Grasping Roots." The new arrival whispered, and Fia found herself wrapped up in various plant roots.

"Hey, wait a minute!" The roots began to pull her into the ground, "No! No no noooooo!" She screamed as she was dragged under.

"Cool your head in the darkness a little while, nee-chan." Rumina asserted pleasantly, before turning to the senshi.

"Um..." Moon uttered intelligently.

Venus sighed, "Fia's alive... just alone. And cramped. There's a reason all of the Keepers except for Rumina were claustrophobic..."

"It's because Rumina buried them alive routinely." Artemis coughed out quietly, drawing bewildered looks from the other senshi.

"Hime-sama wasn't claustrophobic," Rumina inserted brightly from her position... directly beside Moon.

The leader of the senshi jumped, surprised. "Wah! How'd you do that?"

Rumina turned to Moon, tilting her head with a pleasant smile on her face, "You're so energetic, Serenity. Here I thought you'd faint..."

"If Fia was fire... then... are you Earth?" Mercury asked, garnering a small nod for Rumina. Blinking, Mercury did a double-take, "By chance, were you at the library earlier?"

Rumina nodded again, "Yes. Please turn off the alarm on the Mercury Computer when you enter, next time. _It's _**_rude_**_ and _**_obnoxiously_****_loud_**_ to those reading._"

A shiver ran down the collective group's spine before Venus spoke up, "Why are you here, anyway? It's clear you didn't reincarnate, and your eyes-"

She was interrupted when Rumina hummed, tapping her though and prompting several roots to shoot up and wrap around Venus' mouth. "I'm here to keep you from interrupting the children. Nothing more, nothing less. And Mercury," she smiled, ignoring the tension in the air, "I'm not the Keeper of the Earth anymore. I was forcibly retired." Venus' eyes widened as she was lifted by the vines and tossed across the street. "I abhor violence but... I can' let you walk in on the little ones. My apologies."

"What do you mean little ones?" Artemis asked, jumping off of Venus' shoulder before she hit the ground.

"Why should I tell you?" Rumina asked, confused, "You drove Hime-sama insane. Got us _killed._"

A chill ran down Moon and Chibi-Moon's spines. '_Does that mean...?'_

Any further thoughts were interrupted when a small figure impacted against Chibi-Moon's back, catching her in a bear hug. "I'm here Rumina-nee! Let's play!"

"Go play with the little one elsewhere, Syl. I don't need your help." Rumina requested. "Play _normally._ _Nicely._ Hime-sama will be upset if you break her."

Nodding, Syl smiled and, before anything could be done, both she and Chibi-Moon vanished into thin air.

"What'd you do with Chibi-Moon!" The group exclaimed, only for Rumina to hum, unfazed.

"Syl's playing with her – don't worry. She'll be back as soon as we're done." With that, ex-keeper of Earth tapped her foot to the ground ominously, and a pair of large, stone hands rose up from the street. "I don't want to fight... but since we have the opportunity, let's spar a while." One hand came crashing down, "Show me your strength."

"Wait!" Venus called as the hand crashed down, shattering the street where the senshi used to stand, "What about Marielle and Renee?"

Rumina's smile took a sad hue, "They're not part of this reunion, I'm afraid. Now... it's been a while. Have you grown rusty?"

The pebbles and spikes in the area began to levitate into the air.

**-Syl (Unknown Location)**

"Wah!" Chibiusa exclaimed as she fell out of a nearby shadow, landing hard on the stone floor.

"Oops." Syl winced, "Sorry – I forgot you probably haven't traveled this way before."

"It's okay..." Chibiusa assured, patting herself off as she stood up. "It's really dusty here..." She spoke, looking around the dark, empty stone corridor. "Where are we?"

Syl smiled brightly, "A very important place. My most, and least, favorite place in the entire world... Hime-sama's castle."

"It's still standing? I thought everything-" Seeing Syl's sad smile, Chibiusa faltered, "Right, sorry... Why here? Why now?"

"Well... I was told to play with you. I didn't want you to run off somewhere, and I _really_ want to play so... I picked here, because it's farther away than anywhere else. Nothing can come here, except for Keepers, ex-keepers, and Hime-sama herself... if she remembers how."

"So... this was Taru's house?" Chibiusa noted with wonder, "It's kind of... dull."

Syl giggled, "It is. So Taru is her name, now?"

"No – her name is Hotaru. Tomoe Hotaru... but why am I telling you this?" The (debatably) youngest scout fingered her chin, confused.

Syl smiled mysteriously, "Because I asked... what do you want to do?"

The other knuckled her forehead, stealing a glance at Syl... who continued to stand there, smiling. '_Great so... I'm locked up in Taru's castle, several planets away from Earth, with a girl who may or may not consciously be tapping into some weird mind-control power... how do I salvage this?'_

"Where's Taru's room?" She asked, coming to a decision.

Syl's smile seemed to lose some life, "...the back of the northern wing. I can show you..."

"Lead the way."

Gulping, Syl nodded and started walking through the castle, leaving Chibiusa to catch up with her or be left behind.

**-Will (with the Outers)**

You could cut the tension in the air with a knife. It was that tangible.

Immediately after Will's statement, the two elder Outer Senshi seemed to freeze. The younger, however, seemed to melt, and was now a sobbing mess on the roof-top repeatedly muttering, "I'm sorry." over and over again, much to the bewilderment of the other two.

It made Will suspicious. Very suspicious, but there was little to do.

She could ask another question, and maybe either make Saturn's condition worse or provoke one of the other two... or she could remain silent, as now, and hope for a solution to present itself.

'_What a mess.'_ Will thought, tired. "Um..." Will started, but that was when another figure appeared, wrapping her arms around the crying senshi before vanishing.

"Right..." Neptune spoke, glancing between where Saturn was moments before, and where the red-head was standing, bewildered. "Are you sure that-"

Neptune was interrupted when Uranus suddenly shouted. "PLUTO! GET YOUR LAZY, FIGHT-WATCHING BUTT BACK HERE!"

An elegant looking woman with long black hair and ready eyes appeared behind Uranus, tapping the annoyed senshi in the back. "Can you refrain from shouting? Your image is bad enough as is."

"IMAGE? _YOU_ ARE PREACHING TO _ME_ ABOUT MY _IMAGE_?" The wind senshi raged, whirling about and about ready to strike Pluto... only to refrain from doing so at seeing the passive, amused smile on the elder's face. "You better have a damn good explanation." The senshi of time's brow rose, and Uranus deflated completely. "Right. Stupid of me – demanding an explanation from the Queen of Mysteries."

"Here's something better," The senshi of time spoke, smile growing tenser as she seemed to grow in height, looming of Uranus, "What do you think you were doing? You just tried to assassinate the Keeper of the Heart of Kandricar. In. Broad. Daylight."

Neptune palmed her face as Uranus wilted beneath Pluto's enraged gaze. '_I knew there was something familiar about that word. It was that pendant Renee used to carry around. Damn.'_

"Do you even realize all the hell you might've caused? She's the only thing keeping this realm separate from all the other damn loony bins out there!" The Guardian of Time roared, "Kill her and this entire world collapses! Every city. Every country – planet – _star._ Everything!"

"But-" The blonde started, seeming so much smaller in the face of the uncharacteristic blow up on Pluto's part, "but she-"

"_Saturn_ would never forgive you." Pluto whispered, deadly serious, "You know why."

As Uranus fell apart completely, Pluto cast her gaze onto the guardian's, who flinched under the severity of it. "My apologies for this." She said, cough quietly to herself as she regained her composure, "They weren't very well-informed..." '_And neither was I – I just happened to be watching when you mentioned the Heart.'_ "...would you like to come over to our house for some tea? Maybe relax a little before we make things even more complicated by answering your questions?"

"Right... because tea and cookies heal all wounds," Irma muttered sarcastically. "We should _totally_ trust the one who waits until the very last minute to show up... immediately after kidnapping one of her team-mates, prompting the other to start shouting in insensible rage."

"Well... we could just go our separate ways, and never see each-other again... but if we did that, it would undoubtedly bite us in the proverbial rear later." Pluto retorted mildly.

"_OR_ the whole lot of you could burn in your own personal hell!" A new voice cut in, and Pluto whirled about to see a girl with light-brown hair and glowing amber eyes standing on a nearby rooftop, arms engulfed in fire. "Infernal Column!"

Pluto's eyes widened, and she pushed the other two outer senshi off the rooftop just as the entire building was consumed by a massive pillar of fire.

"Wow, that's a lot of heat," Irma noted, impressed, "Another dark guardian?"

"Another?" Neptune asked, garnering a nod.

"We were fighting one before – weren't you watching?" The water guardian answered, still watching the flaming building as the pillar fell away, leaving a smoldering wreck behind.

"Where'd you take Hime-sama, time-witch?" The previous voice questioned dangerously, and all eyes were turned to see the newcomer facing down Pluto. "I escape from hell... just in time to see _you_. And not only do I have the _pleasure _of seeing _you_, but I see _you _making off with Hime-sama... and then stopping by again to **_chit-chat_** with the newbies!"

Irma whistled lowly, "She's pissed."

Neptune gulped, "If she's who I think she is, I have reason to believe why... and if I'm right, she's not just pissed – she's _royally_ pissed."

"By chance... do you know anyone named Rumina?" Uranus questioned nervously, only to sigh in relief at a negative nod.

"The last one called herself Syl, though," Hay Lin inserted helpfully.

Uranus face-faulted.

Attention was drawn back to the confrontation between Pluto and Fia when the former was forced off the roof by a cry of "Infernal Tide!"

The time senshi grunted, rubbing her leg where a small burn had made itself apparent. Looking up, though, she chuckled, causing Fia to pause in confusion, "You say you just escaped from hell...by chance, does Rumina know you're here?"

"Of course not!" Fia shot back heatedly, before suddenly shivering, her anger vanishing, "Wait a minute..."

A swift blow to the back of her neck, and Fia found herself flaying unconscious in Rumina's tender grip. "I said that I wouldn't let anyone interrupt them. You included." The former keeper of earth intoned, "And not only that... you forced me away from my spar."

A brief stare was shared between Setsuna and Rumina before the latter vanished into the ground, dragging Fia with her.

"..." Pluto muttered to herself, staring at where Rumina had just been standing.

Several moments later, the inner senshi appeared, looking battered and decidedly worse for wear, to see five individuals clad like the one that had been toying with them for the past several minutes, talking with the outers in what was a surprisingly civil conversation, all things considered.

It made growing headaches worse when Chibi-Moon appeared out of nowhere. "What the-" She started, glancing around, "Dang it!"

Confusion seemed to be the air's favored emotion that day.

**-No Perspective (Hotaru's Old Room)**

In the bed of the room Chibi-Moon had just been about to enter, a young girl about the edge of the person who once lived here lay on the bed, asleep and surrounded by a soft aura of pink light. There was a brief, bell-like chime, and then the aura pulsed. The girl opened her eyes, revealing a pair of confused brown eyes. "...?" She called out, questioning... but there was no answer save the echo of her own voice. Closing her eyes, she shed a single tear... and then she stood up.

Blinking, she noticed the lack of a familiar weight around her neck.

**-Will**

Will glanced at the Heart as it levitated out of her shirt, giving off a brief pulse of magic before returning to its previous, inert state. '_Great... now what?'_


	9. Matters of the Heart, Roulette

_**Disclaimer: Neither W.I.T.C.H. Nor Sailor Moon nor anything else that might pop up belong to the writer of this story.**_

_**Author's Note, Taeniaea: **Sad. And even **more** secrets revealed._

_**Author's Note, Rimshooter: **And to think this was supposed to be a cool-down chapter..._

_**Chapter VIII: Matters of the Heart, **Memory Roulette_

**Hotaru** **(Outer's Residence, Hotaru's Room)**

Hotaru was shaking.

On one hand, memories of the past were trying to filter their way into the present – prompting vague and random flashes of moments of time from her childhood... all rendered meaningless by the speed at which they flew by. On the other... Hotaru _wanted _to remember. She _wanted_ to have some certainty about this situation but... something was holding the memories back. Instead of coming to her all in a rush like in past situations similar to this, they instead came in chaotic bursts, vanishing as soon as they were apparent. And not only that, but since they couldn't materialize, there were some unfortunate side-effects that wouldn't normally matter...

It felt like someone was shoving needles through her skull.

Try as she might to organize her thoughts, everything was moving too swiftly for her conscious mind to keep up.

One moment, she remembered helping her mother prepare lunch boxes in the kitchen – the next she was running away from some ominous black entity that chased her throughout there house.

One second, she was a child – the next she was who she was now.

It was all one big confusing mess that she couldn't make heads nor tails of – and at the moment, she couldn't even be sure what memories were from her _present_, let alone decide what was in the past.

Eventually, it all proved too much and the girl finally faded into the comparative bliss of sleep, her transformation dispelling itself with the lack of will to sustain it.

**Will / Setsuna**

'_Pluto's room is bland.'_ Will decided, moments before Irma voiced her thoughts... in typical fashion.

"Wow, nice place," She noted, "...think you could manage to put anything less in here and still call it a room?"

"An engineer has achieved perfection not when there's nothing left to add," Pluto spoke coolly, turning a frigid gaze on Irma, "but when there's nothing left to take away."

The guardian of water flinched and, for once, had the decency to look sheepish... if only a little.

"As entertaining as it is to see Irma squirm..." Cornelia interjected, "there's a lot of questions, and not so much time to answer them."

Pluto held up a hand, surveying the room. Counting the guardians and inner senshi, there were fifteen people in her room. '_It's a big room... but that's way too many.'_

"Before any questions... raise your hands if you _can't_ tell me what Kandricar is." The time senshi queried, and was pleasantly surprised when – other than the guardians, who were expected to know it – Neptune, Venus, Uranus, and the "advisors" didn't raise their hand. '_That's three more than expected.' _"Everyone who just raised their hands – out, we'll fill you in later. Mercury, you can stay, we're going to need your input. Chibi-Moon, you stay as well."

There was a small storm of chatter as the inners filtered out of the room; some grumbles of protest, some halfhearted complaints, and even... talk about dinner? At that comment, Pluto let out an unnoticeable sigh as Will's brow rose slightly. Still, the exit held little fanfare... aside from Pluto pulling Irm back into the room by the collar when she tried to sneak out and explore the house.

Shutting the door and standing in front of it, Pluto turned an appraising gaze on those present. "All right. We're here – ask your questions."

"That black-outfitted guardian that showed up referred to Saturn as 'Hime-sama'..." Cornellia pointed out, and Pluto knuckled her forehead.

"Long story short? Former retainer – childhood friends. In Saturn's past life-" She held up a hand, stalling the oncoming storm from the peanut gallery, "she was a princess of her kingdom, much like the rest of us. Fia was very loyal to her princess. All of them were. It's just Fia's nature to be more... expressive... about her feelings than the others."

"Right, so that tells us why she's so upset about anything happening to Saturn..." Will started, and Irma picked it up.

"...but not why she hates you so much."

It was Venus who spoke this time, "They think we pushed her over the edge." She stated, a slight waver in her voice betraying the bluntness of her words, "Might actually have – we don't know. No one's entirely sure what happened."

"What could you have done to make them blame you, though?" Will pressed, "What do you _know_ happened?"

"The queen sent an order to have her isolated and put in exile," Pluto explained, "Her powers were erratic and destructive, and no one knew how to train her. The decision was made to keep her as far as we could from general society until she could master them..."

"So not only was she dealing with the fact that she might accidentally blow up her house, or _worse_, you cut her off from her support network." Will observed... and then her mind flashed back to the story Yan Lin had told about the fifth guardian. "Fia is, or was, a guardian." The red-head noted, thinking aloud, "so who were the others? Syl, Rumina... what about the other two – the keeper, and the guardian of water?"

"Marielle and Renee – guardian of water and the keeper of the heart, respectively," Neptune asserted, turning an eye to Pluto. "But... wasn't there another one? I can't remember her name."

A chill went down Will's spine, even before Pluto closed her eyes and let out an audible sigh, "The fifth guardian – the keeper of the light – was Saturn herself... which reminds me," Pluto opened her eyes again, fixing the guardians with a steady gaze, "where's your fifth? Where's your light, guardians?"

"We have no fifth. There hasn't been one in centuries..." The guardians exchanged uneasy glances, as Will continued "Saturn's mother... did she...?"

All eyes were on Pluto, and the senshi of time closed her eyes again, nodding, "Die? Yes. We're not sure how, but-"

A knock sounded at the door, followed by a familiar voice, "Setsuna-mama... I need help..."

Pluto palmed her face as the other two outer senshi froze up, prompting Venus and the cats to look at them, confused.

Will's eyes narrowed slightly. That sounded like Hotaru. And she was in pain. 'And_ she knows someone who normally lives in this room.'_ She noted looking at Pluto.

There was another knock, followed by an odd... fizzling sound as Mercury's computer suddenly started beeping in alarm. An odd black, lightning-like energy sparked away from the door handle. Seeing it, Pluto's eyes widened and she summoned her Garnet Rod, holding it in a warding position.

"Setsuna-mama!"The girl cried and, to the surprise of everyone present save the outers... the door suddenly vanished beneath a curtain of black lightning, revealing a tired looking Hotaru staring at her hand, expression an odd mix of bewilderment, confusion, curiosity, and apathy. "My head hurts..." She complained, bringing the still-flickering hand up to rub her eyes.

"Pluto..." Will started, "...did my younger sister just blow up the door to your room?"

Reluctantly, the senshi of time gave a small nod, still watching Hotaru warily as if she might suddenly jump out at them.

Hotaru, on the other hand, looked much less alert. In fact, it looked like she was dead on her feet. Blinking, she turned a bleary-eyed stare onto Will. "Onee-chan... aren't you s'posed to be with okaa-san in..." She trailed off, wincing visibly at what those looking on could only assume was a particularly strong spike of pain.

Blinking again, she looked at Pluto again, nervousness showing clearly in her eyes, "P-Pluto! Where... why...?" A cold weight dropped into the pit of Will's stomach as Hotaru's expression descended into outright terror as she fell to the floor, clutching her head, "No! I don't want to go away! I don't want to go to sleep!"

"T-taru..." Chibi-Moon muttered, shocked – only for Pluto to insert herself between Chibi-Moon and Taru as the girl's head snapped to Chibi-Moon, eyes like a deer in the headlights.

"No! No no no no – No!" She exclaimed, throwing up her hands and conjuring a sudden bolt of black energy that Pluto was barely fast enough to put Chibi-Moon out of the way of. Seeing the hole in the wall left by the bolt, Hotaru curled into a ball and shivered. "Mother..." She whispered, desperate, before suddenly falling over, unconscious. The random jolts of black lightning dancing off her form did little to ease the mind, though.

"Pluto-" Will started, unsettled and more than a little angry, only for Pluto to interrupt her.

"No time." She asserted in a clipped, business-like tone. "Chibi-Moon – she needs help. Use your power to calm her down.

Gulping, the small senshi opened her locket, revealing a glowing pink crystal even as her transformation dispelled, revealing her to be Chibiusa... though that wasn't very hard to guess. Ignoring everyone else, the girl bent over to the crystal, whispering to it, "Pink Moon Crystal, I need you to help my friend with her struggle." Whatever the point of speaking to it was, the crystal seemed to respond. A soft pink aura came out from the crystal enveloping Hotaru from head to toe. Already, she looked healthier – the lightning disappeared – but then something unexpected happened.

Violet energy seemed to leak out of Hotaru's forehead, shifting about before it seemed to gain definition, turning into a spectral version of Sailor Saturn, only with longer hair... and wearing the same outfit the guardians did, blurred and indistinct as it was. The wraith turned a baleful gaze on Pluto, before softening as it looked to Chibiusa, and then Hotaru. It appeared to sigh, before kneeling beside Hotaru, placing a finger on her forehead. _"Too much too fast, little one."_ It whispered, _"You carry too much already. Let me take this burden."_

The wraith tapped the center of Hotaru's forehead, and the astrological sign for Saturn flared into being, as if in response, before it dimmed and the wraith began to fade. Standing once more it turned back to Pluto and the outers. _"Be glad. Were it not for the little one's compassion, you would have just died."_ And with that ominous word of warning, the wraith faded away completely.

"Frieendly." Irma commented, staring at the space the wraith had just been, "People from Saturn really don't seem to like you."

Pluto just sighed, rubbing her forehead and leaning against the wall, too tired to retort.

Fortunately, Will had that covered. The look she gave Irma might have melted steel.

This time there was nothing halfhearted about Irma's shamed expression. "Right, sorry... too close to home."

**Unknown Perspective (Saturn Palace Ruins)**

The girl paused in her ascent of the castle stairs, staring off into the chaotic stormy sky. "..." she whispered, eyes sorrowful. "Hold on a little more. I'll be there soon – I promise."

Then she returned to the long, lonely walk it took to reach the top of the palace's highest spire – since riddled with countless holes and collapsed in several places. '_A miracle it's still standing,'_ she marveled, even as she followed the trail of familiar energy to her destination. It was not long before she stood atop the spire. She froze, gazing about the ruined tower-top, eyes far away. '_Rumina was there – Fia over there...'_ She looked to the right, where a massive spike of ice stood impossible sentinel against the ravaging storm.

Walking closer, she saw a small form hovering protectively in front of the spike, and immediately averted her eyes. '_Syl,'_ She noted automatically, wincing with every step afterward as she walked past the frozen corpse, deliberately avoiding it to look up at the spire of ice.

It was less a spire, and more as if several great waves had converged on this point, racing upward into a spiral – frozen in position for the rest of eternity. At its tip was a distinctly female figure, arms spread out in a cross as if she had been crucified in mid-air. "Marielle," She whispered. The ice seemed to pulse slightly – dimly, like a fading flame. "Marielle, I am with you." She spoke, more confident as she placed a hand on the ice, flinching at the chill. "You are not alone anymore – you must wake up."

There was another pulse, and the girl removed her hand. "I know you don't want to," She spoke, pleading, "I know you want to sleep forever. That waking up will be painful... but she still needs your help, just as she did then. She saved you – saved me... She might not have even known what she was doing – might not h, "ave even remembered our names but... She's out there, Mary. She needs us to help her stand up again... or she'll just fall back down"

There was a period of inactivity, and then the ice pulsed once more, brighter. And then again, and again; steadily growing brighter with each consecutive pulse. Then it reached a critical point, and the light seemed to emerge from the ice, gaining form and shaping itself until she was looking at a frozen statue of Marielle... and then the statue opened its eyes, color bleeding into it gradually so that in a few moments, the girl could swear she was looking at flesh and blood... only she knew better.

"This will have to do," The newly formed elemental spoke, brushing several stray snowflakes out of its silver-blue hair.

The girl shook her head, giving the icy maiden a hug despite the cold, "It's fine, Marielle. Amazing, actually," There was a weak chuckle, "You learned how to do this on spot, didn't you?"

Marielle averted her gaze, "I could always do this," She insisted, "It's just not very efficient to transfer my consciousness in the middle of a fight..."

The other chuckled, "Right, because there's nothing you can't do when you put your _mind_ into it."

"That was a sad pun, Renee," Marielle commented dryly, "it freezes my heart."

Renee clapped the other's back "It's good to have you back." Releasing her friend, Renee adopted a serious expression. "But, much as I would like to talk and laugh forever... She needs us."

Marielle nodded, the tiny smile that had worked its way onto her face vanishing, "I know."

"Then we'd best get to Earth," Renee replied, raising her hand.

A blue portal appeared between the two of them.

"Why Earth?" The former water guardian asked, as the pair entered the portal.

Renee's response was as simple as it was sad "It's the only place left that she could be. Everywhere else is dead."

With a flash, the portal closed behind them, leaving the remains of their friends to their tombs.


	10. Matters of the Heart, Stage Set

_**Disclaimer: Neither W.I.T.C.H. Nor Sailor Moon nor anything else that might pop up belong to the writer of this story.**_

_**Author's Note, Taeniaea: **Sad. And even **more** secrets revealed._

_**Author's Note, Rimshooter: **And to think this was supposed to be a cool-down chapter..._

_**Chapter VIII: Matters of the Heart,** The Stage is Set_

In the dim twilight, a portal opened itself up in an inconspicuous alleyway. Moments later, it vanished, depositing Renee and Marielle unceremoniously onto the ground.

"Brings back memories, doesn't it?" Renee asked as she untangled herself from her icy friend and stood, offering a hand up.

"Yeah," The water user acknowledged, taking the hand, "Didn't even use it, and the Heart went out of its way to make our journey... that much more pleasant."

Renee shrugged, "It must love us that much." She quipped, before taking in their surroundings. "So... this is the second capital? It's kind of..." She trailed off, motioning about as she tried to find the word she was looking for.

"Crowded? Dirty?" Marielle offered, stepping out of the alleyway and surveying the small throng of people filtering about, even this late at night. "How long do you think we have until someone realizes what we just did?"

Renee shrugged dusting herself off, "I don't know. If they were actively watching... well, we'd be under arms right now, I'm sure."

"Very reassuring," Her companion drawled, looking about the roofs and ends of the streets, "Where is she?"

Renee shrugged, playing with her strawberry-blond hair, "Up, down, left, right... Nowhere in sight."

"..." Marielle stared at her.

"Come on, I've been laying in bed for the past couple centuries – I'm not exactly at top form."

"...You just wan to explore the second capital, don't you?"

Renee pouted, "I'm covered in dust, wearing an outfit that looks like it's seen hell – and probably has – and we're going to meet _Hime-sama_ for the first time in... well... I don't know, but still!"

"...In other words, you want to play." The other flinched at Marielle's accusations, and her pout grew more pronounced, "Centuries old... and you're still a child after all, huh?"

"That's mean!" The shorter girl objected, "I _am_ a kid!"

"So you admit it."

"No matter how much time passes for me – you'll still be older." Renee retorted impetuously.

The air suddenly grew much colder, and Renee shivered, waving her hands. "Alright, alright! I admit defeat!"

"Which way is she?" Marielle questioned again. Seeing the cat-like gleam in Renee's eyes, she made a hasty addition to that question, "And if you lie about it, I'll treat you to some raw _ice_."

The blond winced, before pointing toward the end of the street. "That way." She muttered, irritated.

"Good. Seeing as the city is still standing and the people aren't engulfed in mass hysteria, we can assume she's not on a rampage. Maybe we can prevent such an occurrence." Noticing Renee's uncharacteristic lack of response, a small smirk appeared on her face, "What, giving me the cold shoulder?"

"That was terrible, even for you."

**General View (Outer's Residence)**

"Explain. Now." Will demanded, thoroughly tired and irritated by everything that had just happened. It might have just been a trick of the light, but for a moment Pluto could swear she saw Will's eyes glimmer ominously... and the Guardians weren't even in their transformed states at the moment – the magic that was responsible apparently have finally worked its way through their systems... for now.

"Hotaru is Saturn's reincarnation, and her powers are very reactive to her emotions." The senshi of time asserted, "I don't know what memories she was experiencing at that moment, so I can't tell you for sure why. From what I can tell her past life was mixing with her present, and it was stressing her mind. As a result, her powers left her control."

"The ghost, spirit... whatever... said it would kill you if it weren't for Hotaru – why?"

Pluto shrugged, "Any number of reasons. From a past grudge, to a present one... We've never exactly... gotten along, per say."

"But..." Taranee inserted, "Hotaru called you Setsuna-_mama_..."

"I didn't say we didn't get along with _Hotaru._ Bear in mind, it also said she's the only reason we're not dead." The eldest senshi responded, "We... adopted her after the incident."

"You didn't bother to see if she still had any other family, though, did you?" Will pressed, only for it to be deflected.

"It's best we leave that for Hotaru to explain herself." Pluto stated, confusing Will even more.

"Hate to interrupt," Irma cut in, "but this one's been shaking ever since you started talking about whatever incident."

"Something you want to say, small lady?" Pluto queried.

The girl looked from Hotaru's sleeping form, to her locket, before closing it. "She saved me. Without me..."

Pluto put a hand on Chibiusa's shoulder, stilling her into silence, "Without you, she would still be wracked with nightmares."

"But they wouldn't have shown up in the first place if I hadn't been around." The girl persisted, and Pluto's brow rose.

"Or they might have anyway. Time is a funny thing – you never know what may or may not happen as consequence to your actions... and even if you do, it's still hard to tell if it's worth it or not."

"Taru..." Will started, "...wrote about you, in her letter. She was... ecstatic, almost – you gave her a friend, so don't look down on that friendship."

There was a period of silence then, before Will suddenly made for the door. "I'll be back in a bit... just need to clear my head."

"Sure you won't get lost?" Neptune asked, and in response Will jingled the pendant around her neck.

"Even if I do... something tells me this won't let me stay that way." With that, the red-head vanished through the doorway.

Venus frowned and made to follow her, only to find Irma leaning in the doorway. "Give her some alone time will you?"

Venus blinked, how did she move that fast? "You don't know how strong those three are, though – it's really dangerous out there."

Irma shrugged, "She won't go very far, and how likely is it they'll be this close to this house, anyway?"

The leader of the inner senshi fixed Irma with a dead stare, "More likely than you'd think."

"So we keep our eyes peeled – Mercury over there can handle that, right?"

Defeated, Venus let out a frustrated sigh.

**Will (Streets of Juuban)**

It didn't take Will long to stop.

After walking a block or two, she found a large park with a pond in the center.

It was as Will closed her eyes, leaning back on a bench she'd found, that the air suddenly grew much colder.

Eyes snapping open, Will noticed three things. One – the Heart of Kandricar was glowing again, even more brightly than before. Two – there was a girl about Hotaru's age in front of her with a disturbingly happy smile on her face, clad in dirty, torn up clothes. Three – the bench she was on was slowly being covered in frost.

"So you're the one she's chosen," The girl stated, leaning uncomfortably close to Will's face. The red-head blinked. She might not have been a guardian very long, but her danger senses were screaming at her.

The fact that the Heart was responding to the girl in front of her did nothing to settle her nerves. "Well, I can't really be very judgmental, all things considered." The girl stated, leaning back and folding her arms. "I _was_ going to go straight to her side right away, but here you are. I want to see if you're capable, so..." She continued holding her hand out... and conjuring a small ball of lightning. "Show me how strong you are!" She exclaimed, tossing the ball at Will.

Will didn't have time to dodge... but fortunately, the same aura that protected her before sprung to life, deflecting the blast off to the side and giving Will the time she needed to gain some distance.

"That's cheap!" The girl complained, "You rely too much on the Heart!" To demonstrate, she held out her arm, and lightning snaked its way down it. The attack shot off the girl's extended limb, racing toward Will only to impact against the barrier and be knocked off to the side... and then another of the same attacks raced through while the barrier was flickering, striking Will's left arm. "You have a power of your own in you. Use it."

The frost-covered girl walked over to the younger then, giving a Will an unreadable stare before placing her hand on her shoulder. "We have... visitors." She muttered coldly, voice laced with displeasure.

Before the younger of Will's sudden antagonists could respond, the elder grabbed her around the waist, a large spike of ice appearing and carrying the two up and backward... just as a sudden blast of fire tore the spot they'd just been standing apart, causing the spike to collapse in a shower of white mist and rain. "Fia," The ice-user's dispassionate voice called out, "No. Whatever you are, who wears Fia's face, do not interfere."

'_What does _that_ mean?'_ Will wondered, bewildered. It wasn't long before Fia... or not Fia... responded with the fury that was apparently trademark for her.

"Pft." The fire user snorted as she stepped past Will, prompting the red-head to start at her proximity. "Don't interfere? What bullshit. This girl is under Hime-sama's protection – a hair on her head goes missing and Hime-sama makes my _head_ goes missing."

"..." The two of them stared each other down for several moments before a new voice cut in.

"Please retreat, or surrender." Rumina requested, appearing in Fia's shadow – the violet pinpricks under her eyes glowing eerily in the darkness. "This is a pointless battle. We outnumber you."

"Let me go!" The lightning-girl pleaded, prompting the ice-user to glance down at her. "This – these – I won't just let this sit by!"

"No. The senshi are coming. We're leaving. Goodbye for now, Not-Fia, Not-Rumina," The girl intoned, vanishing into the various shards of ice at her feet.

"Tch," Fia grumbled, "They got away."

Rumina shrugged, "Just as well. We're leaving too, Fia."

"But-!" The fire user started, only for Rumina to reach out of the shadow and grab Fia's ankle, dragging her through with her.

Moments later, the inner senshi arrived on scene. "What happened here?" Moon questioned, "It's summer – and the pond's frozen!"

"Someone attacked Will, obviously," Mars interjected as Mercury gave the area a brief once over.

"The attackers have fled, as well," The senshi of water noted, bringing her computer out and starting a more thorough scan. While Mercury was busy with that, Venus and Jupiter walked over to Will; the former offering her a hand up.

"You look like you got hit by one of my thunderbolts." Jupiter noted as Will accepted Venus' hand, careful not to jar her left arm, which was still slightly singed.

"I kinda did." She admitted, "There was this girl. She attacked me out of nowhere, and used lightning. Said something about me relying on the Heart too much."

Venus paled slightly, '_That sounds like... but that's impossible! Will has the Heart – there's no way...'_ Holding back a gulp, Venus posed the given question, "What did she look like?"

"She was wearing a dirty, torn-up dress, and had long, strawberry-blond hair, with dark brown eyes." Will noted, "There was someone else with her too – they're responsible for the ice. Long hair covered in ice, sapphire eyes."

"Mary and Renee." Venus breathed out, "Did they have any lines under their eyes? Any markings at all?" She questioned hastily.

"Not that I could see." Will replied, "But... the one with sapphire eyes was _covered_ in frost. It was like looking at a walking ice sculpture with color."

"Kaguya?" Jupiter questioned, garnering the others attention immediately.

"No," Venus shook her head, shivering, "Worse, in a way. At least she's not out to freeze the planet... I think."

"You think," Mars, Will, Jupiter and Mercury all noted dryly, in unison.

Venus shrugged, "She's one of the former Keepers. Judging from Fia's reaction to Moon... I have no idea what her motives are."

"Quit beating around the bush. Who are we facing, exactly?" Mars cut in.

"I can't say for sure, but it's probably Renee and Marielle – Former Keeper of the Heart and Keeper of Water, respectively. And... impossible as this sounds... since they lack the markings, it's possible they're the originals, and not reincarnations, or clones, or whatever the dark guardians really are."

Mercury's computer beeped again, and she glanced at the screen. "The Mercury Computer is confirming it. The energy signature here matches up with one, 'Renee of Saturn: Keeper of Heart,' and one 'Marielle of Saturn: Keeper of Water."

"Fia said something about me being under 'Hime-sama's' protection, and Marielle said something about Fia not really being Fia..." Will inserted, recalling the odd conversation between the dark guardians and the ice maiden.

"Wait – Fia was here?" Moon asked, latching onto the familiar name, "As in; 'I'm going to burn you alive on spot for slighting my Princess in a past life' Fia?"

Will nodded, "Oddly enough... she and Rumina showed up to protect me from the other two. When asked to step out, she said, and I quote: "A single hair on her head goes missing and Hime-sama makes my _head_ goes missing!"

"That's impos-" Moon started, only to cut herself off, remembering Saturn's rather... pointed refusal to let her help in the battle against Pharoh 90. "Well... maybe not so much." She muttered quietly.

"What do you mean?" Will questioned, "This is my little sister we're talking about, she'd _never-"_

"Hotaru, no." Mars conceded, "But Saturn is a bit less... scrupulous."

"Though Fia might still have been exaggerating," Venus assured, seeing the faint horror on Will's face, "She's deathly afraid of Saturn's wrath. They all were, actually – even _before_ her powers awoke."

"That... doesn't reassure me at all." Will noted, before her eyes widened, "Renee said she was looking for somebody, and that she was going to go straight to her until she saw me!"

Venus blinked. Renee had the ability to home in on the other keeper's locations – particularly Saturn. "Crap. We need to get back to the Outers' House."

**Outside Outers' House (Renee)**

"Drat," Renee muttered, prompting a curious gaze from Mary.

"She's surrounded by the other Outers, and the new guardians. We can't talk to her without drawing their attention, and I don't want to deal with them until after we talk with her." Renee elaborated, prompting Mary to sigh.

"They're not going to let her out of their sight." She noted, prompting Renee to mimic her earlier sigh.

"Of course not. We have to bide our time – talking to her will be impossible at the moment."

"At least she doesn't seem to be volatile. I can't feel anything right now."

Renee nodded, "There is that, so at least we have the time to bide... so, does this mean we can see the city now?"

Mary palmed her face.

**OMAKE: Fire**

"Damn it!" Fia fumed, "Finally find a nice opponent to vent on and they run away. Again!"

Rumina glanced at Fia impassively, "Prometheus once defied the heavens and bestowed the knowledge of fire to humans. As a result, those who wield fire are cursed by the gods. Of course, the idiocy of Men in their use of the holy flame only incensed the gods further, prompting them to chain Prometheus to a rock, to be eternally tortured."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Fia fumed, glaring at Rumina, only for the earth user to continue staring at her impassively. Blinking, Fia suddenly remembered who she was talking to, and the fact they were in a _greenhouse. _As if to reinforce this, several large plants seemed to tremble slightly.

"It means," Rumina responded, "That you should be more careful, lest you get yourself burned. Last I checked, Onee-sama didn't like being attacked. She likes it even _less _when someone else gets caught in the crossfire."

Fia stared. Then she blinked, and blinked again – the color draining from her face. "B-but Onee-sama's not here! She wasn't summoned!"

The hazel-eyed girl shrugged, "We can't say that – our eyes can see only so much, our ears hear so many things, and our fingers stretch so far; who knows what may lay hidden in the dark, out of reach, and yet to be revealed."

"But..." Fia muttered, losing steam as a cold shiver went down her spine, "...if that was Onee-sama, who was it that...?"

Rumina shrugged again, picking up her book once more, "Knowing the luck the players of our role hold, it was probably Renee." Opening the book, Rumina began to read nonchalantly as Fia shattered, falling to the floor in a gibbering daze.

That was when Syl returned, poking Fia with a stick, "What happened to Fia-nee?"

Rumina gave Syl and the fire-user a sidelong glance, "Situational irony."

"Huh," Syl mused, continuing to poke Fia, "Irony's scary."

Returning to her book, Rumina nodded, "Indeed. You might want to stop that – Fia's not going to be very happy when she finally finishes processing the fact that she very nearly signed her own death warrant."

The girl tossed the stick away, pouting.


End file.
